Harry Potter and the Wrath of Vengeance
by EvilChris
Summary: Harry appeases a god and breaks out of Azkaban after being wrongly imprisoned for eight years, and is about to wage war on two different fronts, with only a small band of followers.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters or plots, but I do however own my original characters, which may or may not be appearing in abundance in this fic. I am making no money off of this, otherwise it wouldn't be on here.  
  
Rating: R, for violence and language in later chapters.  
  
And now...whatever. On with the fic!  
  
The room, if it can be called that, was dark and clammy. Tall, imposing dark figures silently swept up and down the corridor outside of the door. There was no light anywhere, the place crawled with darkness and even darker shadows. If you listened closely, you could hear muffled sobs coming from more than one direction. Despair thrived here, for it was the infamous Azkaban Prison. Every ray of happiness that a person could have was literally sucked out of them as they spent time there.  
  
Small grunting sounds could be heard coming from a corner of the cell, and a pale figure could be seen doing sit-ups. Muscles could be seen rippling across his back underneath his long, mangy hair that was soaked with sweat, despite the chilled air. Looking around at the front of him, it was easy to tell that he worked out. A lot. There wasn't much else to do in Azkaban, after all. Providing you managed to retain your sanity, as this person obviously had, at least to an extent. The person was skinny, evidence of being underfed, but muscles were very noticeable all over his body. His abs were finely tuned into what was commonly called a six-pack, his chest and shoulders were broadened by muscle, and his biceps looked as if they could easily lift a first year or two from Hogwarts, --maybe even second or third years-- each. His hair was pitch black in color, with streaks of premature gray here and there. It went about two-thirds of the way down his back. He had a shaggy beard that went down to his chest, and frown lines were evident on his face. His eyes were a vibrant green and most noticeable of all, was the lightning shaped scar on his forehead, over his right eye. Harry Potter was in Azkaban, and had spent the last eight years of his life there.  
  
Harry was imprisoned for the murders of Angelina Johnson, and a family of muggles that witnessed her murder of Angelina. It was at the end of his fifth year when it happened. Angelina had left Hogwarts due to a family emergency, and was seen arguing with Harry at the station for the Hogwarts Express. That night, she was found dead, along with a muggle family of five nearby, avada kedavra on all of them. Eyewitness accounts told of Harry committing the crimes, and a check on his wand showed that the killing curse was the last spell cast with it. The evidence seemed irrefutable, with the eyewitnesses being none other than Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley. After all, why would Ron lie about such a thing? They were like brothers. There was a problem however, Harry was innocent.  
  
The Weasley's, Professor Dumbledore, the Hogwart's teaching staff, the Ministry of Magic and Wizengamot, and especially the Dursley's, all believed Ron's statement. The Weasley family accepted Percy back into their family, crying that he was right all along, and that they never should have doubted him. Public opinion was mixed, but the majority believed him to be guilty. The ones that believed his plead of innocence were ridiculed and accused as ignorant, blind fools. So they quickly learned not to voice their opinions, and keep their complaints to themselves.  
  
Harry did, however, have a particularly steadfast contingent of loyalists. These were his other best friend, Hermione Granger, his godfather, Sirius Black, his former professor, Remus Lupin, and surprisingly, another former professor, Severus Snape. The four banded together, trying to put their differences aside, though it was difficult at times, for they had a common goal: Trying to prove Harry's innocence.  
  
Hermione knew Harry better than anyone, they had bonded particularly closely during their fourth year at Hogwarts, when Harry's name was pulled out of the Goblet of Fire. Ron had abandoned him, and Hermione was all that he had left of his best friends. She believed him incapable of committing such a crime, and after speculation with Sirius and Remus, became more ardent in her stance.  
  
Sirius knew what it was like to be wrongfully accused and imprisoned, and after talking with Hermione and Remus, believed without a shadow of a doubt, that Harry was innocent.  
  
Remus was one of the few people in the wizarding world to keep his calm over all the proceedings, and from his personal knowledge of Harry, and conversations with Hermione and Sirius, also believed that Harry was innocent.  
  
Severus Snape, shockingly, also believed Harry to be innocent. All he had was a sneaky suspicion, and decades of Slytherin cunning, to reinforce his belief. He did, however, have to remain very secretive of his stance, or else Voldemort would likely kill him.  
  
Between the four of them, they managed to keep Harry somewhat informed of news from the wizarding world. Sirius was still being hunted by the Ministry, Remus was living with Sirius at Grimmauld Place, Hermione had taken the History Professor position at Hogwarts, relieving the school and its students of the ever-boring Professor Binns, and Snape was still terrorizing students in the Potions dungeon, as well as acting as a spy for the Order of the Phoenix.  
  
Harry was interrupted from his workout as a Dementor, one of the few that didn't answer Voldemort's call several years previous, slid a package through a hole in the door separating his cell from the rest of the prison. This happened about once a month, usually packages from his few remaining friends, though sometimes a harmful package that his now many enemies thought would be funny to send to their fallen hero. This package had no return name on it, and he didn't recognize the writing. It was roughly the size of a shoebox, and covered in thick brown paper. It was rather weighty, and Harry was cautious with opening it. The Dementor's wouldn't allow overly harmful packages to reach their prisoners, as they still enjoyed sucking the happiness out of their minds, but they weren't too concerned with minor curses that did little damage. Normally, one wouldn't expect mail and packages to be given to prisoners, but the Ministry of Magic had decided to allow that one simple pleasure to be given to prisoners who still maintained their sanity.  
  
Harry decided to throw caution to the wind, and just get the risk over with. He tore the paper off, and was expecting a curse to hit him in the face. That didn't happen. He was not expecting to see a book. A rather large book, at that. He looked down at it, a spark of surprise glinting in his eyes, though otherwise not showing. He had learned long ago not to show any emotion, and to keep any emotion he had, well under check. It had made resisting the Dementor's easier, though still excruciatingly difficult. He had been helped a lot by Snape, who sent him several large books on Occlumency. Using those, Harry had managed to form a wall around his mind, that was able to keep the Dementor's at bay. As of late, he had let his wall crumble, but still the Dementor's were unable to break him. The reason was simple: The only feelings he had now, were rage, and hatred. The last note he had received from Hermione, a month and a half previous, told how Ron was living rather comfortably off the money he had received from the Ministry, for witnessing Harry's acts of murder. This only reinforced his belief that Ron was paid off to lie about him. He was suffering, because his former best friend's desire for money, overcame their friendship. Hermione had shunned Ron after guessing the same thing, but had nothing to prove it by.  
  
Harry broke out of his thoughts from the past, and looked closely at the book. It didn't look like one that Hermione would send him, so who was the sender, he thought. It was entitled _'The International Compendium of Wizengamot Decrees'_. Frankly, it looked quite boring. He was struck with a vague thought of what his godfather and Professor Snape did when they sent him somewhat contraband reading material. They used a charm that would disguise the material, unless Harry spoke a correct password to it. Only then, would its true form be revealed. He thought for a moment, and remembered the password that he always used with them.  
  
"Prongs." He whispered, close to the cover. It worked. A masking charm seemed to fade off of it, exposing the true form of the book. The new title was _'Sacrifices and Rituals to Appease the Gods'_. It looked particularly dark, and a good deal more interesting than its masked predecessor. The cover was made of rough leather, and there were metal strips as bindings, held to the cover with rivets. Runes decorated the borders of the cover, several of which he recognized as being from ancient Egypt, notably, the Book of the Dead. He also recognized some as Norse, and Aztecan. He mentally thanked Hermione for sending him books on Ancient Runes to pass the time while he was locked away. He opened the book, and looked at the table of contents.  
  
_Forward by Charles Picuns: Pages 1 - 24 _

_Chapter 1 - The Gods and Goddesses: Pages 25 - 76  
Chapter 2 - History of Sacrifices: Pages 77 - 100   
Chapter 3 - History of Rituals: Pages 101 - 124   
Chapter 4 - Sacrifices and Rituals: Pages 125 - 570   
Section 1 - Atlantian: Pages - 125 - 187   
Section 2 - Aztecan: Pages 187 - 240   
Section 3 - Chinese: Pages 240 - 276   
Section 4 - Egyptian: Pages 276 - 305   
Section 5 - Incan: Pages 305 - 335   
Section 6 - Lemurian(Mu, Hiva, Bolutu, Hawaiki): Pages 335 - 374   
Section 7 - Mayan: Pages 374 - 410   
Section 8 - Roman: Pages 411 - 446   
Section 9 - Sumerian: Pages 447 - 480   
Section 10 - Toltecan: Pages 481 - 506   
Section 11 - Misc.: Pages 507 - 570   
Chapter 5 - Appeasing the Gods: Pages 571 - 650_

Harry stared at the star that was marking Chapter 5, and turned to page 571. He saw a message that had been scrawled on the page.  
  
_ Harry, Read this chapter well. You might find something to be useful for your current...predicament. Be wary, do not take the supreme-beings' lightly. I will contact you again if you go through with it. You will know what "it" is when you come across it. _

_A friend  
_  
Harry contemplated the note for a few seconds, and then began flipping through pages, looking for whatever 'it' may be. He went past gods of loyalty, goddesses of love, and many others. Finally, nearing the end of the chapter, he saw one that immediately drew his attention.  
  
_Naylajaratim, The God of Vengeance. Little is known about this powerful, but secretive god. Only one sacrifice has been recorded throughout history; it was done by an immensely powerful Mage by the name of Edward Potter, in the 16th Century. He was betrayed by his brethren whom cast a coma-inducing charm on him, then handed him over to a rising Dark Lord by the name of Lusalin. After Potter was awakened by Lusalin, he underwent many months of torture and imprisonment, until a slave of the Dark Lord snuck an ancient scroll into his possession. That scroll contained the instructions for the sacrificial ritual needed to invoke the power of the God of Vengeance. Potter used the instructions, and became the first person in recorded history to do it successfully. He had Naylajaratim on his side, and he brought down vengeance on those that betrayed him.  
_  
Harry reread the paragraph over and over to make sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him. 'Edward Potter? I wonder if he's one of my ancestors.' He thought to himself. He thought about it for a few more minutes, before continuing to read.  
  
_Naylajaratim is very particular about who He helps, as very few people have been wronged badly enough for Him to pay attention to them. Making a sacrifice to Him is very risky, because if He doesn't approve of your situation, you will be struck down with the terrible wrath that only a God can have. As Edward Potter was the only person on record to have successfully made the sacrifice, we must assume that his situation is the one that Naylajaratim approves of: Betrayed by those closest to you in the deepest manner possible, to the point that you suffer needlessly for a long length of time. You are warned against performing this sacrifice, but if you wish to continue forth anyway, the instructions, copied directly out of the ancient scroll that was given to Edward Potter, and now lies in the Potter Family Vault, is below._  
  
Harry read the instructions over and over, and committed them to memory.  
  
Several hours later, he kneeled in front of a tin bowl that he was usually served food in, that had a good amount of drained blood from him. His wrist was sore from the cut, but had stopped bleeding the moment he finished with the first part of the ritual. He took that as a good sign, and continued with the rest of the ritual. He was chanting in a long dead language that hadn't been heard on earth since his great, great, great, great, great grandfather chanted it in a similar situation. The magic in the air was palpable, and Harry's eyes had turned the deepest color of black that one couldn't begin to imagine. He was only vaguely aware of a horde of Dementors trying to get into the cell. They were being held back by an invisible field of energy so strong that Voldemort himself wouldn't have been able to make a dent in it.  
  
A hurricane strength gust of wind blew through the tiny cell, wreaking havoc on the chanting man. Still he continued. A lightning bolt shattered through the ceiling, exposing him to a torrential downpour of acid rain, and showering him with razor sharp fragments of stone. He gasped painfully as his skin slowly started to melt off of him, and the stone fragments imbedded themselves into his flesh. He continued chanting though, and an earthquake began rumbling underneath, shaking the foundations of the island that Azkaban was situated on. He continued chanting. Suddenly, everything went black for him, as he was drawn into unconsciousness.  
  
_Harry awoke in a void that was filled with energy, colored flashes went off all around him like the grand finale of a fireworks display. He wondered where he was, and how he got there.  
  
"You're in my home, young Harry," A voice came from nowhere, and everywhere at the same time, startling him from his thoughts. "As for how you got here...it's simple. I brought you here."  
  
Harry, regaining his composure, asked. "Who are you?"  
  
A low chuckle resounded through the void, "I believe that the mortals call me Naylajaratim, though how they came up with that name is beyond even my expansive knowledge. I firmly believe that one of the other Gods, possibly Atalyia, implanted the name into one of the mortals' minds during his sleep. She would do that just to irk me, though she denies it." The voice paused, as it sensed that Harry had a question. "Speak your question."  
  
Harry looked surprised, but quickly recovered. "Erm, I look how I looked back before I was sent to Azkaban...which was a long time ago...it's safe to say that I look completely different now, though."  
  
The voice chuckled again before responding. "Residual self image, young Harry. You are not here in your physical form, just your subconscious form, so you look how you see yourself in your mind."  
  
Harry nodded, it made sense. "Since I'm here, does it mean that the ritual worked?"  
  
There was a sigh, before the voice continued. "Down to business already? I haven't spoken with a mortal since your great, great, great, great, great grandfather Edward, was here some four-hundred years ago."  
  
Harry looked up sharply from studying his now scar-free arms, "So, he is my ancestor, then?" He asked.  
  
"Yes, The fact that you and he are the only two human's that have called upon me, and gained my acceptance, might be called strange, in the mortal realm."  
  
"So the book was right, then? He was the only person to successfully perform the sacrifice?"  
  
"Yes, Though many, many more tried. But their situation wasn't dire enough to warrant my attention...a spouse cheating on you, a significant other breaking up with you, someone killing your family member...it isn't enough to gain me as an ally."  
  
"I would think that a family member being murdered would be a good reason for vengeance." Harry said.  
  
"That's what the common misconception is. See, contrary to popular belief, I am not entirely a god of vengeance...I do lend my power to those that I accept, so they can pursue vengeance, but there are requirements. It's not just someone that has been wronged in some way, such as the murdered family member...it's more than that. I help with vengeance for those that have been cheated, betrayed by those closest to them, and personally suffered, either physically or mentally, needlessly."  
  
"So you're more of a...god of justice, then?"  
  
"I suppose that would be one way of putting it, though that wouldn't be an entirely accurate title."  
  
"I see."  
  
"Now, we were going to discuss business...the reason I have brought you here, to my 'home', so to speak, is so you can inform of what exactly it is, that you want."  
  
Harry floated through the void, experimenting with propelling himself, before answering. "I want vengeance."  
  
Harry could almost feel the god's smile, as it remained silent for a few moments. "Yes, of course, but be more specific."  
  
"I want vengeance on those that put me in here, and on everyone that betrayed me. I want unparalleled power so that I can break out of Azkaban and begin my hunt, and I want knowledge to use on my hunt. I want my life back."  
  
A roar of laughter echoed through the void, causing Harry's bones to tremble. "That is more like it, young Harry! Consider me as an ally now. I will do what I can to help you in your 'hunt', as you put it."  
  
"Another thing you can do, is stop calling me 'young Harry'. I'm twenty-three years old."  
  
"I'm older than the galaxy you live in. Anything less than ten- billion years old, is but a child to me."  
  
"If you've been around for that long, how is that me and my grandfather are the only ones to have successfully performed that ritual?"  
  
"You're not the only ones...just the only ones in recorded history for this planet."  
  
"This planet?"  
  
"You're not so arrogant, as to think that with all of the expansiveness of space, there aren't any other intelligent life-wielding planets out there, are you?"  
  
"Yes...well...I don't know."  
  
"Very well. There have been others on this planet that performed it, especially back in the days of what you call Atlantis, the Aztecan Empire, and a few other occurrences here and there. But until now, your Edward was the last one to have done it."_  
  
Harry awoke from his unconscious state, completely healed from his injuries, and powerful beyond belief. He slowly stood up from the floor of his cell, and saw that Aurors were trying to break through the shield that had been erected around him during the ritual. They looked at him in surprise as he stood, and took a step backward after seeing the look in his eyes. It was a look of unrestrained power. Electric charges danced around the whites of his eyes, and his iris' glowed green. He smiled, though it was without humor. The Aurors began backing away from the cell, as a current of magical power swept across the island, being drawn to Harry's outstretched hands. Clouds began darkening overhead, lightning lit up the sky. Thunder crashed violently, nearly shattering ear drums. It all suddenly went silent as Harry brought his arms down from over his head, and crouched on the floor of his cell. He looked up at the terrified Aurors that cowered across the corridor from him, and grinned maliciously. "It's time for me to leave."  
  
With that, an explosion of green and red flames ripped through the prison, and the island itself, hurtling automobile sized rocks hundreds of feet into the air, and smaller debris all the way back to mainland Scotland. Clouds of smoke rested thickly around the island, but it was thinning out enough to see that there was no Azkaban anymore, and the island was shattered down to water-level, with debris still falling back into the surrounding ocean. There was a lone figure standing on a piece of smoldering rock, looking at the sky with anticipation. Harry Potter was free, and there was only one thing on his mind: Revenge.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters or plots, but I do however own my original characters, which may or may not be appearing in abundance in this fic. I am making no money off of this, otherwise it wouldn't be on here.  
  
"Albus!" Came a piercing screech from outside of Albus Dumbledore's office, his head perked up in alarm from reading a report on his desk, and not a moment later, the door crashed open. "Albus!"  
  
"Yes, Minerva, what is it?" Dumbledore responded calmly, though he was secretly troubled by anything that could cause this big of a panic attack on the school's Deputy Headmistress.  
  
"Azkaban Prison has been destroyed!" She shrieked. "No survivors, barely even any remains."  
  
Dumbledore leapt out of his chair and raised his eyebrows in surprise, "When did this happen?" He quietly asked.  
  
"The explosion was heard a quarter past one 'o clock, the first team of Aurors, including Nymphadora, got there fifteen minutes later, and found the prison to be completely incinerated...the island was destroyed all the way down to water level, with debris landing as far away as the Scotland coastline."  
  
Dumbledore sunk into his chair just as quickly as he had risen from it, and rubbed his eyes wearily. "All of the Death Eaters we've caught...if any of them managed to escape, they could be able to inform Voldemort of Order members identities. How did this happen?"  
  
"I wasn't told...perhaps you should floo Arthur and see if he has any further information." She suggested.  
  
"Yes, that's a good idea..." He stood from his chair once again and made his way over to the large fireplace in the office; Taking a large pot filled with floo powder, he withdrew a handful and threw it into the fireplace, then clearly shouted "Minister of Magic's office!"

* * *

Arthur Weasley was intently reading the latest report from the rescue teams at Azkaban, when he heard a familiar voice calling his name from nearby.  
  
"Albus!" He greeted as he made his way over to the fireplace and took a seat in front of it.  
  
"Hello, Arthur. I'm sure you know why I'm calling..."  
  
Arthur nodded grimly, and began talking. "At 1:15 this afternoon, Azkaban Prison, and the island it was on, exploded. Nothing remains above water-level, no survivors have been found, and there's only been very few remains, in small portions, recovered from the surrounding waters."  
  
"Any idea how it happened?"  
  
"None. All we can guess, is that it was magical, due to the explosion suddenly ceasing to destroy anything below water. But neither I, nor anyone else in the ministry, has ever heard of anyone creating a magical explosion as powerful as the one that occurred."  
  
"Exactly how powerful was it?"  
  
"There have been bludger-sized pieces of rock found as far away as mainland Scotland, and a good portion of the island was completely vaporized, along with most of the people on it. The largest body part that has been found, is half of a finger. And it is in very bad shape, mind you. A good portion of the skin is melted off of it, fingernail is melted, blood is all cauterized."  
  
"How many people were on the island?"  
  
Arthur stood and went back to his desk, and retrieved a piece of parchment from a stack of identical looking parchments, then took his place back on the chair in front of the fireplace. "There were ten Aurors, fifty regular prison guards, and at last check, one-hundred and eleven prisoners."  
  
Dumbledore sighed heavily, and remained silent for a moment. "Sixty good men..."  
  
Arthur nodded, and didn't look at least bit inclined to argue that the hundred and eleven prisoners were also good men. "And, who some still believe, to be a good boy."  
  
"Harry."  
  
"Yes. Those that still support him, do so without any noise...nobody knows who they are."  
  
Dumbledore shook his head sadly as he thought about how Harry turned out, back during his Fifth year at Hogwarts. "I should inform Hermione and Sirius...they would want to know about it before the Daily Prophet comes out."  
  
Arthur frowned, "I understand your reasoning for allowing them to remain in the Order..."  
  
Dumbledore cut him off sharply, "This is neither the time, nor the place, Arthur, to discuss this again." He stared Arthur down until the younger man lowered his eyes.  
  
"Yes, of course...I'm sorry, but as you can realize, it's been a stressful day."  
  
"I know...I'm going to let you go now, my knees are beginning to ache...it seems that old age might finally be catching up to me." He said with a wink.  
  
Arthur chuckled and said goodbye.

* * *

Harry laughed as he stepped out of the boat carrying a pair of Aurors, and onto a dock that would lead him to the Scottish shore. The two Aurors heard the laugh, and looked up in alarm.  
  
"Did you hear that?"  
  
"Where did it come from?"  
  
"Finite Incantatum!"  
  
Harry's invisibility charm faded, and he grinned at the two shocked Auror's.  
  
"Oops."  
  
The Aurors gasped as they saw the scar on his forehead.  
  
"Harry Potter!"  
  
"Stun him!"  
  
The Auror's drew their wands and ran to either side of him, preparing to hex him. Harry was prepared, however, and closed his eyes in a peaceful manner, drawing magical energy around him. The spells that the Auror's cast at him bounced off of his skin like rubber balls, and flew into the sky. Harry opened his eyes, and smiled again, before raising his hand towards one of the Auror's. He murmured a word, and the Auror fell unconscious. Turning around, he did the same to his companion. Shaking his head at the pathetic excuses the Ministry had for Aurors these days, he strode towards each of them and whispered "Obliviate." wiping their memories clean of having seen him.  
  
Harry walked down Main Street of the small wizarding village that the dock belonged to, and glanced around curiously. He was using a masking charm, making himself look completely different from how he really was. Instead of a muscular, pale, and filthy young man, he now looked like a respectable middle-aged businessman, possibly in the financial area of work. He had light brown hair with a small amount of gray appearing here and there, warm brown eyes, and stood about two meters tall.  
  
He entered a small shop that was selling robes and other articles of clothing and accessories, and walked up to the counter, wear a clerk was sitting idly by, examining her finger nails. She looked up when he approached, and smiled warmly.  
  
"Hello, how may I help you?"  
  
Harry returned the smile and leaned onto the counter before replying. "I was wondering if you could direct me to the nearest apparition point. I was on vacation, sailing my boat off the coast, and I seem to have sprung a leak in the hull, so I'm in need to reach Gringott's bank to withdraw the funds necessary to repair it." He smiled again after speaking, and his eyes sparkled merrily.  
  
She nodded and gave him directions, which lead out of the village by about a quarter of a mile. Harry thanked her, and made his way in that direction. He took his time walking there, deciding to enjoy the outdoors, after spending so long locked inside his cell. He ran his hands over the tall grass and flowers bordering the path that lead to the apparition point, and picked a rose to smell. After a short while, he reached the point, and after taking another look around the area, disapparated.

* * *

"Professor Dumbledore!"  
  
Dumbledore was cut from his thoughts as he saw a slightly built, bushy haired, brown eyed young woman approaching him at a jog. He sighed inwardly as he saw the look on her face, and figured that she must've already heard the news.  
  
"Is it true, Professor?" Hermione asked.  
  
"It is, Miss Granger. I'm sorry."  
  
Hermione's shoulders slumped, and she bowed her head. Dumbledore felt a pang of sympathy for her, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps his release from life will bring him happiness in death."  
  
She jerked her head up and glared at Dumbledore, "You think that he'd be happy, knowing that nearly the entire wizarding population of the world, thought that he actually committed those crimes? He was innocent, and nobody believed him, you all just let him rot there. I hope he haunts the lot of you. Some loyalty." She spat out, then turned on her heel and stalked off.

* * *

Harry leisurely strolled through Diagon Alley, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells that he had missed for nearly a decade. Over the years, Voldemort had gained immeasurable power, and had made hundreds of attacks on both wizard and muggle locations alike. Therefore, Aurors were stationed almost everywhere Harry could see, as he walked down the street. A frown passed over his features as he noticed the burned out shell of several buildings that he didn't remember. Warding spells were placed around them to prevent people from poking around in the ruins, and hurting themselves.  
  
"Death Eaters attack Liverpool, Death Eaters attack Liverpool! Special edition of the Daily Prophet out now, only five knuts!" A boy shouted from the doorway of the Daily Prophet's offices. A grim silence followed this exclamation, and people slowly, almost against their will, bought copies of the Prophet and began to read.  
  
Harry sidled up to a group of people and listened to them converse about the attack.  
  
"Thirty people dead, it says." One person said.  
  
"God damned Death Eaters, they're everywhere now." Another replied.  
  
"I can't believe You-Know-Who hasn't tried to overthrow the Ministry yet, his army has to be powerful enough to take over the world by now." One whispered.  
  
"Careful there, I heard that Ben Lartney was arrested by that special division of Aurors when he spoke about that. Thomas Finwell told me that Ranier Malaston had them created as a secret police force to stop people from talking about things they shouldn't be." A bearded man whispered in reply.  
  
"Thomas Finwell? Isn't he Assistant to the Minister of Security?"  
  
"Yes, but he's not all that corrupt. Unlike his boss, Malaston, he wants people to be able to live freely, as well as be protected. Malaston wants to control everyone, place spells all over their homes to watch them, in what he says, as a way of protecting of them."  
  
"He sounds like a good guy."  
  
"That he is. He also believes Harry Potter was innocent, so that's another point for him, in my book."  
  
Harry's ears perked up at this, and he discreetly moved closer to the group, while pretending to look in the window of a shop.  
  
"If Malaston or Weasley finds out about that, they'll have him fired. There's no way he was guilty of those crimes, but they still believe he should get the Dementor's Kiss."  
  
The group began to walk away, while staying closely together.  
  
"How do you know him, anyway?" An elderly man asked.  
  
The bearded man looked around carefully, and leaned in towards the elderly man before replying. "Remus Lupin inducted him into the Order of the Lion."  
  
"We really shouldn't be discussing this here." One of the other men interrupted, and the group nodded and began walking to Flourish and Botts.  
  
_'Order of the Lion?_' Harry asked himself. He didn't recall that being mentioned in any of the secret letters that Remus, Sirius, Hermione, or Snape sent him.  
  
"News!" The boy that was yelling about Liverpool being attacked, screamed at the top of his lungs. "Azkaban Prison destroyed this afternoon! Everyone dead, including ten Aurors, fifty guards, and over a hundred prisoners, counting the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter!"  
  
The people in the street gasped in unison at this, and flocked to get the latest report. Harry chuckled to himself at the mayhem he was responsible for, and walked into The Leaky Cauldron. Once there, he found the fireplace, and threw in a pinch of floo powder, clearly shouting "Hogsmeade!".  
  
Harry tumbled out of the fireplace, and was barely able to keep his balance. He looked up, to find himself in the Three Broomsticks, with a dozen people staring at him warily. He at once wondered if his disguise was still in place, but with a discreet glance at himself, he was assured that it was.  
  
A young woman walked up to him, holding her wand at the ready. "Wand please." She demanded.  
  
"I don't have it with me." Harry responded.  
  
She looked at him suspiciously, and muttered a spell that he couldn't hear. After a moment of looking at him, she nodded grudgingly and motioned for him to go.  
  
He complied, and left the restaurant. Turning, he began walking towards Hogwarts. He needed to find Hermione, and knew that she would be there.

* * *

At that same time, Hermione had her head stuck in the fireplace in her living quarters.  
  
"I'm sorry, Sirius."  
  
On the other end, Sirius looked absolutely crushed, and held his head in his hands. "I can't believe it's true..." He trailed off, looking at the floor. "I'll get Remus, we'll come there right away. I don't want you to be alone during this time."  
  
In truth, she felt that he was right. She didn't want to be alone with this, especially with the general Harry sentiment going about. She nodded, "Okay. I'll be waiting for you at the Grindylow statue.  
  
"We'll be there in an hour."

* * *

Harry walked up to the massive doors of Hogwarts, and looked at the pair of Aurors standing like sentinels on either side. They glared at him, seeming almost eager to duel.  
  
"What's your business here?" The older, and bigger of the two demanded.  
  
"I'm here to see Professor Granger."  
  
"On what business?" He demanded again.  
  
"It's personal."  
  
"Well that's too bad, then." He sneered.  
  
Harry sighed audibly. "It's important that I speak with her, now would you let me in?"  
  
The Auror crossed his arms, but keeping his wand pointing at Harry. "Why don't you tell me what it is, and I'll decide if it's important or not."  
  
"This is ridiculous. Let me in to see her, now."  
  
"Sod off, old man."  
  
Harry growled angrily, and barely managed to restrain himself from physically beating the bloody piss out of the arsehole in front of him. He settled for his next choice, though. He used the same curse as the one he used on the dock, and in less than a second, both of the Aurors were unconscious. "Obliviate." he whispered, and their memories of seeing him were erased. With that obstacle out of the way, he opened the doors, and entered the castle's Great Hall.

* * *

Severus Snape glared disdainfully at a group of students milling about in the Great Hall, and watched somewhat amusedly as they practically ran in the other direction. He looked up from his student terrorizing as he heard the main doors being opened. In walked a middle aged man, closing the doors behind him. But before the doors were closed, Snape saw the body of one of the Aurors laying on the ground. Drawing his wand, he ran towards the stranger, already shouting a curse.  
  
Harry closed the doors, and turned to see Snape hurtling a curse at him. "Protego!" He barely managed to yell, just before the curse hit him. The shield protected him, and Snape darted to the side with surprising quickness, sending a flurry of jinxes and curses.  
  
Harry dropped to the floor and rolled, "Expelliarmus!" He called. It got by Snape before he could erect a shield, and sent him crashing to the floor, while his wand flew to Harry's hand. Harry calmly walked over to Snape, who was rising to his feet, looking for a weapon. "Snape."  
  
Snape looked at the man, and noticed for the first time that he didn't have a wand. He stood dumbfounded, the man had performed all the magic, without a wand.  
  
"Snape." He said again.  
  
Snape recovered his wits, and lowered into a crouch, before asking. "Who are you?"  
  
Harry smiled ever so slightly, before replying. "Aren't I spitting image of my father?"  
  
Snape glared violently at him. "I asked who you are. Answer me, before I send for more Aurors."  
  
Harry smiled wider, and laughed. "I need to see Hermione, Moony, and Padfoot," He said. "About Prongs." He made sure to emphasize the names, hoping Snape would get the point. He assumed he did, when Snape's eyes widened to the size of saucers.  
  
Snape's head was spinning. Could it be? Surely it couldn't. Azkaban was destroyed only a couple hours earlier, nobody survived. He thought quickly. What was one thing that only Potter would know? It came to him immediately, though he was disgusted to ask it. "Why did I stop teaching you Occlumency?"  
  
Harry grinned. "I snuck into your pensieve and saw my father flipping you upside down and exposing your...undergarments, to the rest of the school."  
  
Snape growled angrily, but at the same time, felt a measure of relief. "Come with me." He said, then began walking up a nearby staircase. "Granger will want to see you. She's rather distraught at the moment, due to your early...demise." He added the last word while glancing at Harry and raising his eyebrows.  
  
"Yes, I'd like to see her as well. All of you in fact." He began looking around closely at his surroundings, having never been in the staff quarters before. They came up to a door with the words 'Professor Granger' on the front, and Snape rapped on it quickly. Without waiting more than a couple seconds, she had opened the door.  
  
Harry looked at her. He hadn't seen her in eight years, and now that he finally got to again...she looked like a mess. Eyes were puffy, nose was red from crying. Hair disheveled even more than usual. Upon seeing a stranger at her door, she tried to make herself look more presentable, though it didn't particularly help.  
  
"Are you planning on letting us in, Miss Granger?" Snape asked coldly.  
  
"Oh! Forgive me, I just...come in." She moved aside and waved them in.  
  
Harry walked in, and felt memories wash over him like warm water. Everywhere he could see, there were pictures of him, during various times at Hogwarts. In the Gryffindor common room, in the Great Hall, on the Quidditch Field, and in various other places. In many of them, he was with Hermione and Ron, though Ron appeared to be removed from most of them, except for the happiest. A large poster on the wall over a bookshelf had his face on it, with the words 'Free Harry Potter' written across it. He couldn't help but laugh, and didn't notice the expression of rage come across Hermione's features.  
  
Hermione leapt on the stranger that was laughing at her memorial of Harry, and began hitting him as hard as she could, which wasn't very hard. She punched, slapped, pushed, pulled, and scratched everywhere she could get to, all the while screaming. "He was innocent you son of a bitch, don't you dare laugh at him! I'll kill you, you sodding bastard!"  
  
Harry grabbed her by the wrists and rolled over so he had her pinned underneath him, then looked at Snape. "Lock the door, curtain any windows, place silencing charms everywhere." Snape hurriedly complied, and Harry kept the struggling Hermione from getting up.  
  
"Everything's secure." Snape reported at last, settling himself into a chair.  
  
"Good." With that, Harry stood up, letting go of Hermione, who crawled back against a wall and stood up.  
  
"Who are you, and what do you want? Why did you bring him here, Professor Snape?"  
  
Harry took several deep breaths in preparation, and let his disguise drop.  
  
There was silence.  
  
Hermione stared at him in revulsion, as did Snape.  
  
"What?" Harry asked.  
  
"Who are you?" Hermione managed to get out.  
  
Harry looked down at himself, and blanched. "Shit." He had never gotten around to shaving the filthy beard that grew down to his chest, and cutting the equally filthy hair that went down his back. He closed his eyes and concentrated; Slowly, the beard disappeared back to where it came from, and the hair shortened to its normal length.  
  
"Harry?!" Hermione screeched, while bracing herself for a joke.  
  
Harry couldn't help but grin widely, "It's good to see you, Hermione." He stepped towards her as she leapt at him, throwing her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, while she sobbed into his neck.  
  
Pulling herself together, Hermione stepped back from him, and grinned at him. "I can't believe it. Did you know Azkaban was destroyed? Everyone was thought dead...we all thought you were dead too."  
  
"You can say that I know about it." Harry said, and winked at her and Snape.  
  
At this, Snape opened his eyes widely, and sputtered. "You destroyed Azkaban Prison?"  
  
Harry shrugged, "I'd rather not talk about it right now. As I see Hermione trying to be discreet about pinching her nose, I'd like to take a shower first." He added with a chuckle, as she blushed.  
  
"I'll show you where it is." She said, and pulled him after her.  
  
He dug his heels into the floor, and turned to look at Snape, who was preparing to leave. "Sn...Professor?"  
  
Snape turned around, and raised his eyebrows in surprise at Harry actually sounding sincere when saying that. "Yes?"  
  
"Thank you for supporting me. And please keep this from absolutely everyone. Especially those that didn't believe me." He said the last part bitterly, with just a hint of malice.  
  
Snape nodded, and even smiled the tiniest of fractions, then left.  
  
"Okay, take me to the shower." He said to Hermione, who resumed leading him.  
  
"S...ve...be..n doing...nc you..."  
  
Harry shut off the water, and turned to face the door of the loo. "Hermione!" He yelled.  
  
"Yes?" She answered.  
  
"Just come in here and talk. I can't even hear you when you're out there."  
  
"But...you're...shower...naked..." She sputtered out, while blushing at just the thought.  
  
"You have a shower curtain." He answered pointedly.  
  
"Oh. Right. Okay then, I'm coming in." She carefully opened the door, and slithered in, shutting it behind her.  
  
"Right then. Now you can talk and I can hear you." He turned the water back on and resumed scrubbing. "What were you saying?"  
  
"I asked what you had been doing since you got off the island, as it's been awhile since it was destroyed."  
  
"Did some shopping, mostly." He answered.  
  
"How did you get the money? Wait, don't answer. I don't want to know."  
  
Harry laughed. "Consider it retribution."  
  
Hermione hoisted herself onto the sink, and sat on the edge, staring towards the shower. She still couldn't believe that it was really Harry. For one, he was the soul survivor of a blast that killed almost two-hundred people. Another, he had shown both metamorphagus and animagus abilities...she knew that he had no metamorphagus ability, and his animagus abilities were never trained, since he was imprisoned before Professor McGonagal could teach him.  
  
"So Harry, have you thought any more of that kiss I gave you after our third year?"  
  
"Fourth year, Hermione."  
  
"Never the less..." She trailed off, thinking of something else to ask that only he would know.  
  
"Yes, as a matter of fact. It was the most action I recieved that year. I used to lord it over the rats and other prisoners I was locked up with; 'The Hermione Granger grabbed me and kissed me until I couldn't breathe any longer, and then licked her lips and winked at me, while swaying her hips all the way back to her parents'"  
  
"Harry! It was a peck on your cheek!" She blushed furiously as he laughed at her.  
  
"If that's what you want to believe..." Harry laughed harder as he could practically see the ceiling glowing from her blush. "By the way, I need more soap."  
  
"There was an entire bar in there!"  
  
"I haven't showered in eight years. The dirt on me has evolved into a sentient being, capable of running a small government. And probably doing a better job than the existing one."  
  
"Okay, okay, I'll get you more soap. Just never mention that again."  
  
Harry chuckled, enjoying the conversation. He wasn't actually that dirty, but was just enjoying the feel of the running water over him, and trying to prolong it as much as possible.  
  
"I did not sway my hips!" Hermione screeched suddenly, turning to glare at the shower curtain.  
  
"Wow, Hermione. You're getting slow in your advanced age." Harry teased.  
  
Hermione snorted, and tossed the bar of soap over the curtain, listening intently for a muffled ouch, indicating that she had hit him in the head. It didn't come. Instead, she heard him begin to whistle a song she couldn't recall hearing, though that didn't mean much as there was plenty of music she had never heard before.  
  
"What song is this?" She inquired.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"What you're whistling."  
  
"Oh. Beathoven."  
  
She looked up, startled. Perhaps there was plenty of music she had never heard before, but Beathoven wasn't on that list. She happened to be a great fan of the composer, and was very familiar with all of his work. She found that the music helped her think when she was studying during the summers of her school years, and researching in her teaching years. But she had never heard this song before. "Are you sure? I've never heard it before, and I've got all of his published works."  
  
"Key word being 'published', Hermione. This one was found after his death, and was never released to the public." He answered.  
  
"So you know it...how?"  
  
"Naylajarajim is a fan."  
  
"Who is that?" She asked in confusion.  
  
"So it wasn't you who sent me the book," He stated, more than asked. This just served to frustrate him, as he couldn't stop wondering who sent it to him. "I've been wondering for awhile."  
  
"What book, Harry?"  
  
"Nevermind. I'll explain it to you when Sirius and Remus get here. Snape too." He shut the water off, and stretched out, smiling at the cracking sound of his joints.  
  
Hermione cringed at the grotesque cracking noises, and hung a towel over the curtain rod for Harry, "Why do you think those two are coming?" She asked, fingering her wand warily.  
  
"Because that would be the first thing that Snape would've done after learning I still live. They've at least been civil to each other since forming your reluctant alliance to support me." Harry grabbed the towel and began drying himself, resuming his whistling.  
  
Harry stepped out of the shower, accompanied by a shriek from Hermione as she hurried to both cover her eyes, and run from the room at the same time. The combination didn't work well, as she banged her hip on the sink, then ran face first into the wall, before finally stumbling out of the room.  
  
Her muffled exclamations of pain and annoyance were clearly audible through the door.  
  
"Are you okay, Hermione?" Harry asked from where he was still standing, one foot out of the shower.  
  
"I think I fractured my hip! Why did you do that?" She yelled in response.  
  
"Do what?" He asked.  
  
"Come out of the shower completely starkers, without warning me!"  
  
Harry shrugged; He didn't see it as too big of a deal, having lived in tortuous conditions accompanied by only his nightmares and several insane inmates for the past eight years.  
  
"My sincerest apologies," Was his dry response.  
  
He could still hear Hermione grumbling to herself from the other side of the door, as he conjured a new set of clothing to wear. He stepped out of the bathroom, to find Hermione examining a newly formed bruise on her hip.  
  
"You should watch where you're going," He remarked.  
  
Hermione glared in response, then walked back into the sitting room, followed by Harry.  
  
"You're wearing new clothes..." She said, looking him over.  
  
"Conjured them." He said, while taking a seat in a comfortable looking chair, situated next to a comfortable looking fireplace.  
  
"How do you know how to conjure?" She asked, while raising her eyebrows.  
  
"All in due time, Hermione."  
  
She sighed. Obviously, she would learn nothing until the rest of his loyal contingent arrived.  
  
Harry absently twirled a lock of hair around his fingers, looking into the the fireplace. Almost as an after thought, he spoke up. "So what is dear old Ronald up to these days?"  
  
She was interrupted from replying, when the door burst open, and three middle aged men entered, lead by one extremely bouncy and excited man, with lightly graying hair.  
  
"Harry!" Sirius Black shouted, while lunging at him, almost knocking him out of the chair. 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters or plots, but I do however own my original characters, which may or may not be appearing in abundance in this fic. I am making no money off of this, otherwise it wouldn't be on here.  
  
Harry grinned at his godfather, whom was currently clutching at him as if for dear life.  
  
"Sirius, it is good to see you. The same to you, Remus," He said, smiling towards the more reserved, but no less happy, older man.  
  
Remus smiled towards him, with untold amounts of relief flowing through his heart and mind. "You had our hearts broken, Harry."  
  
Harry laughed, and hugged Sirius tightly, then stood and did the same to Remus. Sirius and Remus' expression were ones of profound joy and relief; Rarely were these expressions seen over the past many years. Frown lines were easily discernable on both their faces, they'd each grown a lot grayer over the years, Remus now almost completely gray headed. They looked haggard, as if rotting from the inside out. But instead of dull eyes, devoid of life, they shown with extreme happiness, brimming with tears, giving a look of underwater lights.  
  
"Miss Granger," It was Snape that spoke up. "Would you be so kind as to set some extra chairs...we have much to discuss, and may as well be comfortable for the duration of Potter's tale."  
  
Hermione nodded and strode into the dining room, coming back with a pair of chairs in hand. She sat them down in front of the fireplace, across from Harry's chair, and moved the other chairs already in the room next to them. Snape took a seat, followed by Hermione. A moment later, Remus joined them, after once again telling Harry how much he was missed. Lastly, Harry moved Sirius over to his chair, and gently pushed him into it. Sirius was in tears, pure joyous tears. Harry then stepped back to his chair, and sat down in it. Looking across to the four people sitting opposite him, he sat silent.  
  
"Well?" It was Snape again.  
  
Harry smiled, and sat back, preparing to begin his tale. "My apologies, I was contemplating where to begin."  
  
"Eight years ago, when Angelina and the muggle family was killed." It was Remus, that time.  
  
Harry nodded, and steepled his hands against his nose, thumbs under his chin. "As I'm sure you all know, Angelina and I had a rather heated argument on the night that she left Hogwarts...I was warning her about the possibility of it being a trap, but she wouldn't listen," Harry paused, taking a breath and looking at his captivated audience. "Shortly after she boarded the Express, I was knocked out, physically that is. Lucius Malfoy took my wand, and delivered it to Voldemort, who used it to kill Angelina and the muggles. The wand was returned to me, and I was awakened. You all know the story from there."  
  
They nodded, but Snape had a curious look on his face.  
  
"How do you know all this if you were unconscious at the time?"  
  
Harry smiled slightly, and answered. "The knowledge came to me earlier today."  
  
"How?" The others in the room chorused.  
  
Harry looked at them all in turn, and thought. "Before I go into it, I need you to answer some questions for me."  
  
"Like what?" Hermione asked.  
  
"What is the 'Order of the Lion', for one?"  
  
Remus, Sirius, Snape, and Hermione all looked at each other. It was Remus that spoke up, "How do you know about the Order?" He looked at Harry in confusion.  
  
"I was in Diagon Ally, and overheard a man mention that you inducted a certain 'Thomas Finwell' into it." Harry answered.  
  
"Who spoke of this? Who was with him? Where?" Remus fired off the questions quickly, with barely restrainted anger in his voice.  
  
"He was about my height, graying hair. Beard to the top of his chest-- "  
  
Remus cut him off with a wave, "Jonathon Timmerly. He was no doubt with his cousins, they're all trustworthy. Did anyone else overhear this?"  
  
"No, it was only me." Harry replied.  
  
"That batty old fool should not be discussing these things in public. He needs to be suspended!" Snape hissed in a very angry tone.  
  
"Easy, Severus. We need to hear the rest of what happened, before jumping to hand out punishments." Remus replied. "Continue, Harry."  
  
Harry nodded, and gave them a detailed account of what happened, what he overheard, and everything related to it.  
  
When he finished, Remus, Sirius, and Hermione looked satisfied. Snape still looked fit to kill, but a bit less so than before.  
  
"So..." Harry trailed off, looking expectantly at the others.  
  
It was Remus to reply, once again. "The Order of the Lion is a secret order devoted to proving your innocence, and fighting Voldemort and the Ministry of Magic. Hermione is our record keeper, so she can give you all the information." He motioned for her to speak.  
  
Hermione cleared her throat, and began speaking from memory. "We currently have thirty-one members, and fifteen more applicants that are under guard of a remote security spell that will stop them from betraying us. The four of us, and two others are also active members in the Order of the Phoenix, and we currently also have three members in Voldemort's Death Eater corps, spying for us. Professor Snape is one of them, the other two are James Figglesbee, and Robert McCannon."  
  
Hermione looked at Harry to see if he had any questions. He silently motioned for her to continue.  
  
Hermione cleared her throat, and resumed speaking. "Two of our members are Unspeakables from the Ministry of Magic, and we have six members that are high ranking officials in foriegn Wizarding governments. Two from Sweden, one from Romania, two from France, and one from America."  
  
Harry looked surprised at this, but before he could raise any questions, Sirius cut him off. "A lot more people think you're innocent, than you know of, Harry," He smiled. "The Ministry has, unfortunately, done well in shutting up the part of the populace that still supports you. As you somewhat overheard from Timmerly and his group, the Ministry has a sort of Gestapo force now...one of their primary missions being to prevent, and stop public dissent...one of those topics they deem as dissent, is publically believing your innocence." His voice took on a sadder note, and a definite shadow passed across his features as he paused. "More than a couple of our friends and your supporters have gone missing after holding a rally, petitioning for a retrial for you."  
  
Harry was shell shocked at this information, and was not able to form any coherent speech, or thought. He thus remained silent, waiting for someone to continue.  
  
"The Minister of Security is a bad man," It was Remus that continued speaking, "we have no evidence, but we firmly believe that he's involved, or has been involved, in several high operation crime syndicates throughout both wizarding and muggle Europe and Asia." Remus took out a file with several individual sheets of parchment in it, and scanned over it to refresh his memory on the current topic. "One of our very respectable sources from Asia has heard rumors that Malaston once operated a magical creature slave trade in the Hong Kong underground. More rumors from our source in the Romanian Ministry suggest that he was the driving force behind the attempted political coup several years back. That lead to a near full scale civil war in Romania, before it was managed to be put out. The group that attempted the coup, Knights of Morgana, were destroyed in a very...convenient manner, as they were pinned down in their fortress. It just blew up, killing everyone in it. A very strange occurance, seeing that the Knights were still fighting back when the explosion occurred. This destroyed any possible connections and evidence that could be made between them and Malaston." Remus finally stopped speaking, and motioned for someone else to take up the story. It was Hermione again.  
  
"Shortly after this, the wizarding world was in chaos...wizarding governments from around the world sent in their forces to help stop the coup, and many were killed. The initial coup attempt was stopped, but the Knights continued their fight, gaining thousands of supporters from around the world, swayed by promises of riches and power. They were strong enough to rival Voldemort at their height, but luckily their greed kept them allying. The resulting war that happened lasted for about a month, with battles being fought every day. The Romanians ended up losing almost two hundred soldiers. The British Ministry sent two Auror divisions to assist, consisting of almost a thousand Aurors. They were ambushed upon their arrival, and lost nearly a hundred men right off the bat before they were able to disapparate to safety. They ended up losing two hundred and ninety Aurors before the war stopped. France took the worst beating of all, and lost two complete divisions of their soldiers. They had the unfortunate fate of being portkeyed into a valley in the Carpathian mountain range. Somehow, the Knights knew about their arrival, and started a massive rockslide from the surrounding mountains as they arrived. Six hundred of them died in that ambush. The other four hundred died in combat in the following weeks. Other nations including Sweden, Bulgaria, Russia, Japan, Australia, the United States, Egypt, and Germany, lost a combined total of twelve hundred soldiers." Hermione paused and took several moments to gather herself before continuing the story, "The wizarding world was in chaos, nobody had heard of such a massive loss of life since Grindelwald was at large. This was when we believe Malaston decided to cut his losses...the Knights were being steadily driven back into the mountains, and the leaders were holed up in their fortress. Malaston triggered a fail safe device, destroying them and any connection to him, and came to Britain. He used his money and influence to buy his way into the Ministry...it was exceptionally easy, due to the widespread panic and irrationality of everyone. Shortly after, he made his way to Minister of Security, and has been gaining more power, taking more liberties with his position, every year." Hermione finally stopped, and took a deep breath.  
  
Harry took this moment to look at the others in the room. They were nodding, agreeing with what she had said.  
  
Harry asked the first question that came to mind. "What are you doing to stop him?"  
  
Surprisingly, it was Snape that answered. "We've been putting out bimonthly newsletters, voicing our suspicions. Unfortunately, Malaston's Gestapo is a lot quicker than the rest of the Ministry at responding to threats. Whenever they begin to be circulated, a team arrives and breaks it up, confiscating the letters. Some people manage to get ahold of them, but they're taken in under suspicions of helping to spread enemy propeganda. Now, people are afraid to even pick up a letter when it appears. People are afraid of Malaston, but unfortunately, they also believe in him. He's slowly, over the years, helped strengthen the sense that any moment could be their last, and that he's the one that can provide them security. They don't seem to care that they're sacrificing essential freedoms for this..."safety"." He spat out the last word as though it was a curse.  
  
Harry nodded in realization, before another question came to mind. "How did you circulate the newsletters without being caught?"  
  
"A well used invisibility cloak, a couple charms to make people look the other way, and a levitating charm." Sirius provided the answer.  
  
"Now," Hermione began with a hint of impatience in her voice. "You tell us everything."  
  
Harry gazed thoughtfully at her, earning a few confused looks from the others in the room. Sirius happened to think that he was gazing lovingly at her. Before anyone could question him, he began speaking.  
  
"Yesterday, while in Azkaban, I recieved a package..." He trailed off, knowing that he would be questioned about the package.  
  
Sure enough, Remus raised a question. "What package?"  
  
"It was a book, labelled 'The International Compendium of Wizengamot Decrees'. Frankly, I thought it looked quite boring. But...I was struck with the idea that maybe it came from one of you, and had put a hiding charm on it. So I spoke the password that it always was with you three, Prongs, and the mask faded away. I was left with 'Sacrifices and Rituals to Appease the Gods'." At this, Hermione gasped violently.  
  
"You didn't!" She whispered.  
  
"I did." Harry confirmed.  
  
"What did you do?" Sirius inquired.  
  
"He made a blood sacrifice!" Hermione shrieked. This was followed by much commotion from the other three; Sirius and Remus shouting incoherently, Snape lost his usual scornful manner and was hissing about the stupidity of the Potter bloodline.  
  
"You mentioned Naylajaratim before, which god is that?" Hermione screamed to be heard over the din. This quieted down Sirius and Remus, but Snape continued his hissing.  
  
"Vengeance." Harry answered calmly.  
  
"Stupid boy, do you have any idea how dangerous this is, how much risk you're at, invoking the power of a vegeance god?" Snape seethed.  
  
Harry, becoming amused by their reactions, chuckled lightly before answering. "I find him to be quite personable."  
  
"You met him?" Hermione gaped. Harry looked at the others, and saw them gaping as well.  
  
"Yes. After I made the initial drawing of blood, and began speaking the incantation, I was transported to the ethereal realm, where I met him. There, I learned that a long ways down my line, a Potter also invoked his power. We're the only ones to do so in the last seven thousand years."  
  
"How could you do this? What would compel you to do this? You could've died!" Sirius yelled, emotionally wrecked from the stressful day.  
  
Harry shot out of his chair in the blink of an eye, amazing everyone in the room by his speed and agility, they backed away slightly when they saw his eyes had gone black and electricity flickered across the whites. "What compelled me? You want to know what compelled me to want to break out of Azkaban? I spent eight years there as an innocent man, reliving my parents' death every couple minutes, reliving Cedric's death every couple minutes, and viewing and reliving the horrors that Voldemort was committing throughout the time I was there. Frankly, I could not have cared less if I died, I just wanted to try and do something to get the hell out of there."  
  
The others in the room remained silent as he forced himself to calm back down. His eyes lightened to their normal green color, and the electricity faded away. Also, the lights in the room ceased flickering and the temperature raised back to normal. Neither of which Hermione, Sirius, Remus, and Snape had noticed occuring.  
  
"That is what compelled me to do this." Harry quietly added, sinking back into his chair.  
  
"I'm sorry, Harry." Sirius softly apologized.  
  
Harry nodded his forgiveness.  
  
"What else--"  
  
Harry cut Hermione off with a sharp hand gesture, "Somebody's coming. She bares no hostile intent, but I don't recognize her aura." He swiftly got to his feet again and looked towards the door just as it burst open and a woman came striding in.  
  
Harry quickly changed his appearance before she took notice of him, and power was palpable as it drew around him. He raised his right arm and the woman flew backwards into a wall with an surprised scream, sticking there as Harry strode towards her. The other occupants of the room were terrified of this display of raw, yet controlled power. Their hair stood out from static electricity, and the temperature of the room had dropped again by a very noticeable margin. The lights in the room dimmed, and Harry seemed to be walking on air as he moved closer to the terrified, shocked woman who was still pinned against the wall with invisible shackles. The fire in the fireplace was extenguished, and they could see the whites of his eyes glowing a terrible electrifying blue, flickering with energy. They surrounded irises that were such a deep shade of black, that they appeared to be able to suck light into them, similar to a black hole. They saw this through a reflection in a convienently located mirror, but it was nothing compared to the reality of looking straight at him, as the woman currently was. She began to scream in terror, but Harry was quick to silence her by moving a finger in her direction. She quite suddenly found her vocal chords to be uncooperative. He glided closer to her, and raised his arm. She raised further up the wall, tears escaping her eyes.  
  
Remus was the first to regain his ability to think, and bounded across the room to Harry, screaming all the way, "Harry, no! That's Tonks!" He reached Harry and began frantically pulling at him. "She's one of us dammit, put her down!" He screamed into Harry's ear. Harry nodded fractionally, and lowered his arm, slowly dropping Tonks to the floor. He released his hold on her vocal chords, and she began sobbing deliriously, while curling into a ball.  
  
By this time, Sirius and Hermione also recovered, and had rushed to Tonks' side. Snape went to Harry and pulled him into another room, away from the broken down Auror.  
  
"Are you bloody insane, Potter? You nearly gave the girl a heart attack!" Snape yelled at him as he closed the door to a bedroom.  
  
Harry dropped his disguised and drew up to his full size, coming eye to eye with the professor. His aura, however, made him seem a foot taller to Snape, who fell back in momentary fear and surprise.  
  
Harry ripped his shirt off, revealing a heavily muscled torso and arms covered with ceremonial tattoos that were currently glowing a shade of midnight blue.  
  
"Don't you fucking test me, Snape, I am in no mood to be trifled with." He growled, his voice, seeming to Snape, resonating from the depths of Hell. His eyes had lost not of their power, and his appearance was made even more fear-inspiring by the glowing tattoos, and his magical aura that made him seem like a giant.  
  
Hermione just then ran into the room, stopping short when she saw Harry standing over Snape, who was backed up against her bed, cowering. She gasped when the saw the presence that Harry was giving, but managed to control her fear enough to approach him. "Harry, you have to calm down. Tonks is one of us, and she needs our help now."  
  
Harry broke his gaze from Snape and faced Hermione. "Take me to her." He ordered.  
  
Hermione nodded, and took Harry's hand, pulling him behind her as she went back to Tonks, who was still sobbing and holding herself in a ball. Nothing that Remus or Sirius could do was working to calm her down.  
  
"What did you do to her? Tonks is one of the strongest willed witches that I know, she shouldn't be affected this bad." Hermione quietly asked.  
  
"I attacked her mind." Harry answered, while crouching next to Tonks, moving Remus and Sirius out of the way. He placed his hand over her forehead, and a feeling of peace came over the room. Tonks slowly stopped sobbing, and opened her eyes. She fearfully looked at Harry, and drew up to her knees, eye to eye with him. Harry smiled at her, and she carefully returned it. He rubbed her shoulder and moved to stand up, but before he could rise she had thrown her arms around him and drew him tightly into a hug.  
  
"It's good to have you back, Harry." She cheerfully stated.  
  
Harry laughed and returned the hug, "Good to see you too, Tonks." He stood up and helped her to her feet.  
  
Snape had by now recovered his composure and entered the room. He looked surprised to see Tonks appearing as her normal cheerful self, when she was completely broken a mere three minutes earlier. He figured it had something to do with Harry's newly found...powers. He was right.  
  
"Again, I'm sorry, Tonks. I didn't know it was you, though I probably should've, had I noticed your appearance..." Harry trailed off, looking her up and down. She currently had shoulder length purple colored hair, and red eyes. She stood around five-feet, three inches, and had a slim figure with curves in all the right places. She wore a leather bodysuit that accentuated said curves, and had high heeled leather boots, that added a few inches to her height, putting her around Hermione's height of five-six. Harry thought she looked rather hot, and winked lasciviously at her.  
  
She blew him a kiss and turned to the others in the room, noticing them gaping somewhat surprisedly at her. "What?"  
  
They shook their heads and looked away, seeming embarassed to be caught gaping.  
  
Tonks shrugged, "Anyway, I came here straight from Magic Evolution, a rather...risque club," She added for Harry's benefit, "Hence the clothing," She added again, jabbing Harry in the chest with a finger. "Malfoy was there with his harem, and I managed to overhear him talking with Nott. There's a raid on schedule for tomorrow night. They're going to hit the Ministry's galleon train as it's leaving London. There's going to be around seven hundred and fifty thousand galleons aboard, going to the Ministry bases in York, Glasgow, and Dublin. It'll be guarded by two teams of Aurors, twelve each, and a team of regular guards."  
  
Remus looked surprised. "Only thirty six guards? Malfoy will attack with at least three times that number, maybe more."  
  
"There was originally supposed to be four teams of Aurors, and three teams of guards, but Azkaban's destruction, and the fear that Voldemort will carry out a wave of follow up attacks, has spread our manpower quite thin. The timing is quite fortunate for Malfoy." Tonks replied.  
  
They continued talking about the Ministry's manpower issues for the next couple minutes, with Sirius and Snape joining in as well. Hermione watched Harry quietly get up and leave the room, unnoticed by the Auror and three other men. She followed him, and ended up in the kitchen.  
  
"Harry?" She tentatively asked.  
  
He turned towards her, "Yes?"  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
"Of course. Just looking for something to drink."  
  
They were interrupted when Harry overheard Sirius ask, "Shall we attack them or not?" Harry strode back into the sitting room, to see what the discussion was.  
  
"Who are you going to attack?" He inquired.  
  
Sirius looked up at him, seeming surprised that he was entering the room. "The galleon train. We're running low on money...I'm still a wanted man, so my vault is closed off, so we can't get money from there. We figure that with Malfoy's forces attacking and distracting the guards, we can slip in and portkey away with the money."  
  
Harry looked to be contemplating something for the next few seconds, before answering. "I can get into Gringotts, and get to the vaults. We wouldn't need to risk personnel by getting into a three way battle, that way."  
  
Hermione looked scandalized. "How can you get into Gringotts? They have the tightest security of anything in the world! I've spent days reading on them, trying to figure out a way to sneak in. It's impossible!"  
  
"You don't have the power of a god in your grasp." Harry simply replied.  
  
That silenced everyone's arguments, as they just looked at him.  
  
"I can get into Gringotts," He continued, "And down into the vaults. Once there, I can collect any money that's needed, and return safely."  
  
They remained silent.  
  
"Okay then," He said, rubbing his hands, a grin making its way onto his face. "Let me get dressed, conjure a few choice items, and I'll be on my way."  
  
This startled everyone into action, with protests springing from everyone, and several mentions of 'idiot Potter' from Snape. They were silenced again when Harry disapparated. The silence was broken when Hermione screached that apparation was impossible within Hogwarts.  
  
Harry returned a few seconds later, wearing a black jumpsuit, and carrying two leather sacks that looked to be big enough to comfortably hold an average sized man within. Hermione thought he looked like a nightmarish Santa Claus, but without the beard and weight.  
  
"I'll be back shortly." Was all that he said, before disapparating away again, leaving them in stunned silence. 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters or plots, but I do however own my original characters, which may or may not be appearing in abundance in this fic. I am making no money off of this, otherwise it wouldn't be on here.  
  
The tunnels were dark and wet, dripping water could be heard from every direction. Every once in awhile, a roar could be heard in the distance, and flames could be seen reflecting off puddles.  
  
It was in this tunnel that Harry appeared, merely a fraction of a second after he had disapparated from Hermione's living quarters in Hogwarts. He apparated without the slightest sound, and began moving as silent as a mouse in a Southernly direction down the tunnel. He past many vaults, each one going down in numbers; 301, 299, 297, 295, 293, and further. He walked until he reached into the lower one-hundreds, and then slowed down. He closed his eyes and held his hands out to the sides, so that they were pointed at the vaults on either side of him. He walked another fifty meters, until finally, he felt a tingling sensation in his right hand. He stopped walking, and turned to face the vault he was in front of. The Potter Family Vault was number 25. He stepped up to the door, and ran his hand over the locking mechanism of the door. A barely audible click was heard, and the door raised up into the wall over his head. It created a massive rumbling sound that echoed throughout the cavernous underground vault system of Gringotts.  
  
Harry was quick to cast a silencing charm over the area, but he didn't think it was quick enough, and fully expected company to arrive soon. Stepping into the vault, he conjured a large ball of flame over the palm of his left hand, and held it up. It lit up the room spectacularly, and Harry couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the accumulated wealth and items contained in the vault. He saw literal treasure chests filling hundreds of cubic meters of space, stacks of galleons and sickles that were taller than he was, and bigger around than Sirius, Remus, and Snape combined. Towards the end of his vision, he could see a library of books and parchments. There was no telling how far back the vault went from there. To his right, he saw several racks of ancient weapons and armor, and what must have been several tons of steel, brass, and other metals, shaped into bars and stacked against the wall. There was an industrial sized forge next to the stacks of metals, and on the other side of it, he saw yet more stacks of metal bars. The light glinted off of these stacks though, and he walked closer to them to get a better look. His eyebrows raised further as he saw that they were stacks of gold, silver, and platinum.  
  
His inspection was cut short several minutes later, as an army of goblin guards came marching up to the still open vault door.  
  
Harry heard them coming long before, and had already placed a magical barrier across the entrance, preventing them from entering. He looked around the vault, wondering what to do with it all. His bag obviously wasn't big enough to hold a thousandth of the room, and once he left, he was sure that the goblins would be able to break his barrier, and confiscate the remaining contents, moving them to a secret and more secure location. There was only one option that he knew of, but was weary of trying it, as he'd never done it before. He had not doubt that he could defeat the goblin guards, but it would be risky for him to try. Goblin magic is different from normal wizards; stronger, harder to predict and defend against. There was a definite chance that he could end up seriously injured, or even killed if he went up head to head with the entire company of them that were currently trying to bring down his barrier at the door. He sighed softly to himself, and decided to take the plunge. He conjured a medium sized chest, lowered it to the floor. He stood over it, and lowered his hands so that his palms were directly above the top of the chest, and then closed his eyes. Magic began pulsing through the vault, and a blue light shot from his hands to the chest. The ceremonial tattoos on his body began glowing fiercly, as he channeled more magic through his body, and into the chest. The chest, by now, was glowing a stunning shade of royal blue, with arcs of electricity shooting out from it, seemingly at random. The light finally stopped, and Harry opened his eyes. Sweat trickled down his brow, and he wiped it off with his sleeve. He cast a quick replicating charm over the chest, and another one appeared next to it. He took this one and shrunk it, then placed it in a pocket of his pants.  
  
He opened the lid of the remaining chest, spread his arms out, and began chanting. After his chant ended, a change took throughout the vault. Reality seemed to shift, and things blurred. The goblins stopped their frantic efforts to break the barrier, and watched in fearful trepidation as a seeming whirlpool effect began occuring. Everything in the room began spinning around the trunk, with the closest items to it being sucked into it. The rest soon followed as it drew close enough. After several seconds, the vault was empty. Harry took one last look around, then waved his hand over the chest, making it float up to waist level. He took it in his hand, and disapparated away.  
  
Harry arrived back in Hermione's sitting room, to face five nervous people. Hermione, Sirius, Remus, Snape, and Tonks stared at him, anxiety showing in their eyes. Harry smiled and lowered the chest to the floor. Motioning to it, he said, "Here's the Potter Vault." And turned to Sirius. "What number is your vault?"  
  
Sirius thought a moment, and replied. "112."  
  
Harry nodded, and disapparated again.  
  
Sirius began pacing, Remus dropped into the nearest chair, Snape calmly sat down and looked at the offending chest that Harry left. Hermione and Tonks left to the kitchen to put on a pot of tea. This continued for several minutes, until there was a knock at the door. Everyone jumped, in surprise, and Hermione ran into the sitting room, followed closely by Tonks.  
  
"Miss Granger?" It was Dumbledore.  
  
Snape's eyes widened, and he began frantically whispering, "He can't find me here, he'll suspect something." Hermione nodded, and went to the door. "Yes, Professor?"  
  
"May I come in?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
At this, Snape set into a full blown panic and leaped out of his chair.  
  
"Just a minute, Professor." Hermione replied, trying to control her voice. She went back to the others, and found them whispering heatedly.  
  
"Harry will be back any minute, we have to stall Dumbledore!" It was Sirius. Remus and Tonks nodded, while Snape was looking around for an escape route.  
  
"Albus will suspect something if I'm seen with all of you. The Order of the Lion has to remain secret, we can not take any chances at it being compromised." Snape hissed.  
  
Just then, Harry apparated back into the room, looking haggard and war torn. His clothes were ripped to shreds, and he had several burns across his torso and arms. Blood was seeping from several deep cuts, and the hair on the right side of his head was singed, as well as his right ear.  
  
"Harry?" Sirius yelled. The others in the room whinced and looked at the door, where Dumbledore was still waiting.  
  
"Sirius?" Dumbledore asked from the other side of the door. Harry looked at the door and look of comprehension came to him, as he looked back to the frightened expressions on everyone else's faces. He took Snape's arm, and cast an illusion charm over the both of them.  
  
Harry looked at Hermione and the others, even though they couldn't see him. "Get rid of him." He hissed, not unlike Snape, then pulled Snape into Hermione's bedroom, closing the door behind him. Tonks took her opportunity, and darted into the kitchen, settling herself into a comfortable alibi of making tea.  
  
Hermione banished the two extra chairs back into the kitchen, and looked to make sure there was no evidence of Harry or Snape being there, then opened the door for Dumbledore. Dumbledore walked in, nodding to Hermione, Sirius, and Remus.  
  
"Hello, Albus." Sirius greeted neutrally. He'd lost much of his faith in the man when he refused to support Harry during the trial, but he couldn't break all bonds of fellowship, the fight was too important for that. Instead, he'd spent months trying to forgive Dumbledore, to see things from his position, and understand his reaction. He was slowly starting to come around to being somewhat friendly again, but wasn't quite there yet.  
  
Dumbledore sighed. "I was just coming to see if any of you needed anything, in this time of mourning."  
  
"We're fine, thank you." Hermione answered.  
  
Dumbledore surveyed the room; Remus was sitting in a chair, cradling his head in his hands, while Sirius was doing much the same. Hermione looked rather nervous, and kept glancing about, as if she was looking for something, and trying to be secretive about it. Dumbledore passed it off as grief, and the strange actions and emotions it causes, and let it go. He seemed to remember something, and looked at Sirius strangely. "Did I hear you yell out Harry's name?"  
  
Sirius jerked up, and looked panicked for a split second, something that did not pass unseen by Dumbledore. "I dozed off and a had a dream about him...I thought that he was here, and I called his name." He managed to look embarassed, as if he was telling the truth. Dumbledore looked at him a for a few seconds, before nodding.  
  
"Well, if any of you need anything, you know where to reach me." Dumbledore said, then turned to leave the room, "Oh, Miss Granger," He turned back to her, "Have you seen Severus in the past couple hours?" He asked.  
  
Hermione shook her head no. Dumbledore nodded again, "Well, if you see him, let him know that I am looking for him, please?" Hermione nodded, and Dumbledore gave a reassuring smile and left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.  
  
She waited a few seconds, until she heard his footsteps turn the corner to head down the stairs, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Harry, you can come out now." She called softly.  
  
A few seconds later, Harry and Snape reappeared, and Tonks came back into the room from the kitchen.  
  
"He knows, or at least suspects something." Snape stated matter of factly.  
  
The others in the room turned to stare at him. "What makes you think that?" Remus asked.  
  
"I've been working closer to that man than any of the rest of you for well over twenty years. I know how he talks. The way he paused before speaking was a sure indication that he saw something. Or heard." He added the last part, while looking pointedly at Tonks, whom was famous for knocking things over.  
  
"Hey now," Tonks began indignantly. "I'll have you know that I remained perfectly silent while he was here."  
  
Hermione nodded her agreement. "Nobody made any noise."  
  
"Then it was something else." Snape was insistant that something tipped Dumbledore off.  
  
"Blood." Harry simply stated. Everyone turned to look at him. "What?" They chorused, which made Harry chuckle lightly. "Blood," He repeated, while waving his hand to the carpet next to him. Sure enough, there were several spots of blood on it. "It must've dripped from me when I apparated in. Dumbledore would've spotted it."  
  
Snape cursed under his breath, and cast a quick cleaning charm over the blood spots. They disappeared, and the carpet looked as good as new. "You should clean yourself up, Potter."  
  
At this simple statement, the other four converged on Harry like moths to a flame, each of them asking questions as to what happened, and if he was okay.  
  
Harry fended them off by raising his hands, and took a couple steps backwards. "Please, quiet down so I can explain what happened." This shut everyone up, and they stood looking at him in attention. "Good," He began, then paused. He summoned a chair from the kitchen, and lowered himself into it, then continued. "The first time that I apparated into the tunnels under Gringotts to get to my family vault, a small army of goblin guards made their way to attack me. I had set up a barrier around the doorway of the vault, so they couldn't get in. I was safe, then gathered up the contents of the vault, and returned here. Unfortunately, by the time that I apparated back there, they'd brought in several more companies of guards, and a couple of dragons. I wasn't expecting this, and was nearly cooked as soon as I appeared. I was able to get a shield up, just barely. Some of the flame still got me, hence the right side of my head, but for the most part, I was unharmed. I banished the dragon back down the tunnel a couple hundred meters, and ran for Sirius' vault. I was attacked by a squad of guards, and another dragon right before I got there. That's where I got the cuts. I dodged most of their bolts and spears, and my shield got the rest, but the dragon was a bit more difficult; It wouldn't cease it's attack on me long enough for me to lower my shield and attack back. I used some of my new found powers and pushed all of the goblins down the tunnel, then faced the dragon. I turned quick enough to notice that it was Horntail, and that its horn was swinging right at my chest. I caught it right as the horns gouged into me. Was close to being killed there. But anyway, I blew the dragon back into the other dragon which was approaching me again, they collided and went down in a heap, I made my way into the vault, cast a barrier, got Sirius' vault, and here I am." He took a shrunk down version of the chest from his pocket and enlarged it, then levitated it down to the floor.  
  
Silence reigned for the next few seconds, as his audience processed the information he had given them. Remus cleared his throat, and looked closely at Harry. "So, you beat two dragons, and a host of Gringotts guards."  
  
"Well, didn't exactly beat the two dragons...just pushed them back far enough for me to get to safety in the vault." Harry corrected him.  
  
"I stand corrected." Remus cracked a smile.  
  
"Just what in the hell were you doing fighting dragons?" Sirius heatedly asked. Hermione nodded her agreement, Tonks as well. Snape remained expressionless.  
  
"I was getting your fucking vault, Sirius. I'm not a little kid anymore, I can make up my own damn mind for when I want to put myself in danger!" Harry replied just as heatedly.  
  
"You are going to get yourself killed, and you've not even been out of Azkaban for one day!" Sirius yelled back.  
  
"I am not going to die!" Harry was standing up, nose to nose with Sirius now. Remus quickly moved between the two and cast a silencing charm over the room.  
  
"Both of you knock it off, now is not the time or place. Hogwarts has eyes and ears everywhere," Remus pushed Harry back into his chair, and did the same with Sirius. "We have no idea who can be listening at any given time. The chances of ears turned to this room are slim, what with everything else that's going on in the castle, but the possibility is still there."  
  
Snape took this opportunity to speak up, "Potter, the way you say it, it sounds like you got all of the contents of both your family, and Black's family vaults. I've not seen the contents of either, but the rumors of their capacity is legendary. The Black Family Vault has been the subject of much discussion over the years, in Voldemort's inner circle. They've been looking to break Gringotts for nearly a decade to get to it." He trailed off as Harry smiled a knowing smile.  
  
"I did get everything." He grinned.  
  
"Impossible. Those two trunks you have are not nearly big enough, even with the strongest enlarging charm. Unless the rumors of their wealth are unfounded." Snape replied, looking at Sirius.  
  
"The spell I used is unknown to any of you, unknown in fact, to just about everyone alive for the past several thousand years. It took almost all of my energy to charm the first chest, then I just replicated it for the second one."  
  
Sirius looked stunned. He'd been in his family vault before, and knew how much stuff was in it. "You got everything?"  
  
Harry nodded. "Right down to the last knut, and the last misshaped chain link."  
  
"Where are you going to put everything?" Hermione asked the question that was on everyone's mind.  
  
Harry looked thoughtful, and rubbed his fingers up and down his jawline. "It can't be in Hogwarts. I know of a place, but it's pretty far away."  
  
"How far?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Off the West coast of Isle of Man." Harry replied, still looking thoughtful.  
  
"Peel Castle?" Hermione asked, with a surprised look.  
  
"No, no, but close to it. Back around the time Hogwarts was founded, the Vikings were raiding that part of the British Isles, and had many wizards allied with them. A castle was built on a tiny island a couple miles off the shore of St. Patrick's Isle, it served as a magical fort to Peel Castle, to assist in the defense against enemy wizards. The Viking wizards eventually conquered it and took up arms there themselves. They remained for a few decades, before being called off to fight in another war. They placed anti-muggle wards around the castle and island, and left. It's been abandoned and forgotten ever since." Harry finished his short history lesson, and summoned a map of the British Isles from a shelf over the fire place.  
  
"I've never seen mention of it in any history books." Hermione said, with an air of doubt in her voice.  
  
"Of course not," Harry replied. "The Viking wizards would've taken measures to keep the fortress a secret, as it was their own little base of power."  
  
"How do you know of it then?" Snape asked suspiciously.  
  
Harry smirked. "I know a lot of things. Anyway. Trust me, it's there."  
  
"Do you know what condition it's in?" Hermione asked.  
  
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Probably not too bad, as I'm sure protective wards were placed on it as well as anti-muggle wards. The Viking wizards wouldn't have wanted to return to a broken down castle. That wouldn't make a very good fortress." He added with a wink.  
  
"How could we get to this castle?" Remus asked.  
  
"A portkey would be the easiest and quickest way."  
  
Everyone looked sceptical at this. "We don't even know if it's safe, Harry." Sirius said.  
  
Harry shrugged again. "Then I'll go there by myself and check it out."  
  
"No, Harry! You are done putting yourself in danger for today!" Sirius began to raise his voice again, vehemently protesting.  
  
Harry sighed and glared at Sirius. "I'll be back within an hour." He said that, and disapparated.  
  
Harry arrived almost immediately later, on the edge of a rough cliff that went straight down a hundred feet to the crashing ocean. Harry quickly gained his precarious balance and leaped forward, away from the cliff edge. He gathered his wits and looked ahead. The castle wasn't huge by any stretch of the imagination, and was definitely not even close to comparison in size to Hogwarts. It looked to be about six floors high around the exterior walls, and had a turret in the middle that rose another two floors. In each direction of the compass, walls extended out from the main part of the castle by about twenty meters, and at the end of each, a turret rose. The entrance to the castle was between the South and East walls, and was framed by two more smaller turrets. The entrance was a ten foot high, six foot wide oak double door set, that opened inwards. In front of it, a very sturdy looking metal gate stood, blocking the way to the doors. It could be raised and lowered from above, and had four inch thick bars criss crossing every two feet in each direction, from top to bottom. Harry walked up to the gate, "Wingardium leviosa." He muttered, waving his hand at the metal gate. It rose very slowly, as if straining against him. He ducked under it, and pushed the double oak doors open, and entered what he presumed to be the entrance hall. The floor was made of polished stone, and felt very smooth. The hall went about twenty meters forward from the door, until it reached another set of double doors. The ceiling was a good four meters high, and the hall was about six meters wide. Alcoves set in the walls made Harry suspect that the hall was used as another means of defense, should intruders break through the gates. Harry waved his hand towards a chandelier overhead, and the candles still contained in it lit up, illuminating the hall. It was spartan, without any needless decorations. About what could be expected for a fort built when the area was constantly under siege.  
  
Harry used his magic to push open the doors in front of him, revealing what was most likely the dining hall. It was in the shape of a half circle, with the flat end being by the entrance hall doors, and the arc of the room extending all the way out to the exterior walls of the castle. Walls were on either side of the doorway that Harry now stood in, extending also the exterior walls. Two doors were on either side of the entrance hall, and Harry, after opening one of them, discovered them to be stairways to the upper floors. He looked further down the walls, and noticed more doors leading to more rooms. He made his way to the right, and opened one of the other doors, seeing several racks inside holding ancient weapons and armor, not unlike what he saw in the Potter Vault. He pointed his fingers at the frame above the door, and burned the word 'Armoury' into it. He then charmed the letters to glow white. He continued checking the other rooms in the floor, burning names into the door frames if they were important enough to be remembered.  
  
"It's been fifty-eight minutes. Where can he be?" Hermione stated, more than asked as she paced agitatedly through her living quarters.  
  
"Relax, Miss Granger. Potter still has two minutes." Snape calmly spoke, lifting his head from a conversation with Remus, Sirius and Tonks about Death Eater strength.  
  
Just as he said this, Harry stepped out of Hermione's bedroom.  
  
"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, running to him and throwing her arms around him. "We were worried sick about you! You almost missed your deadline for coming back."  
  
"Please, Miss Granger," Snape spoke, with his eyebrow cocked near his hair line. "You were the one worried sick...we decided nearly half an hour ago that Potter can take care of himself."  
  
Hermione glared at Snape, then decided to ignore him, and turn back to Harry who was trying to disentangle himself from Hermione's clutching grasp. "What happened? Is the castle there?"  
  
Harry finally managed to step back from Hermione, and move everyone into his field of vision so that they could all hear him clearly. "Yes, it's there. Apparating is out of the question; There's some very old and complicated anti-apparation wards that sit you right on the edge of a cliff that features a one hundred foot drop to a rocky death in the ocean. I will either have to modify the wards to accept you, or I'll create some secure portkeys. The castle is in perfect condition, and large enough to hold a few companies of soldiers. The main body of the castle is about fifty meters long, and fifty meters wide. Six floors are above ground, and an additional four are below ground. The bottom levels contain dungeons, catacombs, a couple torture chambers and a crafting room, which was no doubt used to construct weapons and armor. My family's forge should fit in there nicely..." He trailed off, thinking.  
  
"Why would there be any need for muggle weapons there?" Sirius asked. Remus, and Hermione raised their eyebrows at him, and gave him a scolding look, however it was Harry that answered.  
  
"Swords and other pointed weapons were used as focus points for some warrior wizards millenia ago, before wands came into wide use. They were still used rather commonly until about eight centuries ago."  
  
"Why not just conjure them, then?" Sirius asked again, earning more disapproving looks from Remus and Hermione, both of whom obviously knew the answer and thought Sirius should as well.  
  
"Conjured weapons and armor aren't as durable or strong as they are when handcrafted. Handcrafted chainmail armor, topped with handcrafted platemail armor and imbued with the correct protection charms can be strong enough to stop a held Cruciatus curse for as long as thirty seconds. Conjured armor will barely last five seconds, if at all. Likewise, a handcrafted sword with a magical core can be just as potent as a wand, and even more so in melee situations when you can use it to stab and cut. The wand took over in popularity when the majority of wizards finally began to stop warring amongst themselves, and they wanted something lighter, smaller and less bulky than a sword to carry around." Harry ended his explanation, and earned proud nods and smiles from Hermione and Remus.  
  
Sirius nodded, confirming that he understand what Harry was talking about. "Sounds like we should be adopting the sword and shield again."  
  
"My thoughts exactly," Harry grinned. "There was a large forge in my vault, and several tons of different kinds of metal, as well as several weapons and armor racks, stacked full of items we can use. There also happens to be a handy little armory in the castle, that contains some left over equipment that the wizards probably didn't have room to take with them when they left."  
  
Sirius grinned as well, growing happier and happier with the prospect of new armaments to hit the Death Eaters with.  
  
"What about the security of the castle?" Snape asked.  
  
Harry had no hesitation when replying, "The wards are incredibly strong, as I wasn't able to apparate through them at all. The Viking wizards must have been incredibly strong, probably even including a few High Sorcerors. They must have spent months, maybe even years bulking up the strength of their wards and barriers. I'm happy to say that the castle is nearly impenetrable in a surprise attack. It would have to take a seige of several thousand wizards, and probably a week or more of time to bring the wards down. Nobody can apparate in, and nobody can portkey in. There's no floo access, and the island is completely surrounded by very rough ocean swells. No sea based landings can succeed, as it's a straight up and down cliff all the way around the island. No beach at all. Whoever it was that bulked up the terrain defenses, my guess is the Vikings, were going for absolute sureity that nobody could attack them and win. Turrets are on four sides of the castle, overlooking the ocean and grounds. There are some other defensive wards surrounding the castle, but I haven't looked too closely at them to see what they are."  
  
Snape looked impressed, as did everyone else. "Could we move the headquarters of the Order of the Lion there?"  
  
"Most likely. There's a large meeting hall on the fifth floor, complete with a table that looks to seat about sixty people. Barracks on the second and sixth floors will probably hold a total of about a hundred and fifty people. Several other smaller room can be used for a variety of things, and nobody knows the location of it. So yes, I believe it would be a good possibility for the headquarters."  
  
Hermione looked quite excited at this, "Finally, we can move our headquarters out of Tonks' basement." She laughed at Tonks' expression of mock hurt feelings.  
  
"What's wrong with my basement?" She asked, causing everyone to laugh.  
  
Harry was meanwhile busying himself with the construction of a portkey. "Okay. We're ready to go. I modified the portkey wards before coming back, they'll only entry from a portkey created with my magical signature." He held out the portkey, a small glass bottle. Everyone reached to take hold of it, and Harry triggered it. All six people felt the familiar tug behind their navals, and disappeared from Hogwarts. 


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: It's come to my attention from gallandro83(thanks for the review, by the way), that there could be some confusion as to the timeline of this fic. I turn it AU towards the end of Harry and Co.'s Fifth year, during Order of the Phoenix. Harry was imprisoned before the Department of Mysteries happened, so Sirius is still alive, and Harry doesn't know about the prophecy...at least not yet. The complete backstory of what happened, and when it happened, will be told when I have the Order of the Lion convene for their first high level meeting in the coming chapters.  
  
I fancy myself to be a bit of a graphics buff, so very soon, if not by the time this chapter is posted, I shall have 3d and 2d graphics of the Castle, the Island, Harry's tattoos, and maybe more, depending on if there's anything else that I had trouble describing...after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.  
  
Also, a few of gallandro83's questions about Harry caught me unawares...didn't realize I was backing myself into a corner there, with the goblins and all :P But nevertheless, I had already given it a little bit of thought...Harry's not immortal, and he doesn't have all the powers of the god...I'll explain it further in the next couple chapters. Order meeting and all, people will be asking questions :P

* * *

Harry and his companions appeared amidst a whirlwind of magic and energy in the Dining Hall of the castle. Harry had thrown up a shield surrounding the group before they portkeyed out of Hogwarts, so they were safe from the magical elements.  
  
"Stay where you are, the storm should subside in a few seconds." Harry warned.  
  
"What's happening?" Remus asked, awe evident in his voice. The magical energy storm was creating some very pretty colors, and when protected under a strong enough shield, was a beautiful site to behold.  
  
"The wards on the inside of the castle are very strong, I've already told you of them. By coming directly inside with this portkey, we tore through some of them. They're rebuilding themselves, hence the energy storm." Harry replied, while looking out of the spherical shield that protected them all from certain death.  
  
The storm finally slowed to a halt, and all looked normal again. The only evidence of it having occurred, was a large circular shaped burn spot on the otherwise spotless stone floor. Harry lowered the shield, and motioned for everyone to disperse.  
  
"Harry," Hermione spoke up, "I thought you said that you modified the wards to allow portkeys created by you, to work in the castle?"  
  
Harry nodded, "I should've clarified it. The grounds outside of the castle have had their wards lifted, but I've not done it yet for the inside. I was wanting you all to see first hand just how strong the defenses are. I could probably apparate through them if I focus enough energy into it, but it would still be very dangerous. Luckily for all of you, the wards designed to keep portkeys out are very outdated. Back then, travelling via portkeys was very risky, because the designs were flawed and the wizards and witches who created them, were not yet used to the magic that they needed to put into them. So all of that just means the anti- portkey wards are weak enough to break through, but the defensive measures put in place cause a magical backlash if it happens, which will more than likely incinerate anyone who does make it through. Unless of course, that person had a very strong shield up capable of withstanding the backlash, like I did."  
  
Hermione nodded in understanding, "Are you going to keep the wards like this?" She asked, while looking around the dining hall, which Tonks and Sirius were both already at the far end of, exploring. Remus and Snape both held back around Harry, choosing to examine the things closer to them.  
  
"I'm going to change them so that they're the same as the wards on the castle grounds; They'll let through portkeys created by me." Harry replied.  
  
"That's a good idea."  
  
"So how did you get Tonks into this Order?" Harry asked, while watching the currently black haired Metamorphagus argue with Sirius over who was going to get to try out one of the swords from the armory first.  
  
Remus spoke up from the table he was at nearby, "Those two are cousins, and grew very close after you were imprisoned. Sirius withdrew himself from everyone and spent whatever time he had when he wasn't yelling at Dumbledore, up in the attic of Grimmauld Place, talking with Buckbeak. We thought that we were going to lose him completely, until Tonks took things into her own hands. We don't know what happened, or what was said, but after a few days of her talking to him, he slowly started to snap out of it. They've been inseperable ever since, so it wasn't that hard for Sirius to convince her of your innocence, and then recruit her into the cause."  
  
"And some of us think she's infatuated with you." Snape added, slightly disdainfully.  
  
Harry raised his eyebrows at this, which was followed by laughter from Hermione and Remus. "Speaking of infatuations," Harry began, "Whatever happened to Cho Chang?"  
  
Hermione and Remus lowered their heads, and allowed Snape to answer. "Miss Chang was killed in a Death Eater attack shortly after her year's graduation ceremony. The day has gone down as one of the darkest in Hogwarts history. Voldemort sent all of his forces, and killed thirteen graduating students, seven of which were accepted and ready to go into Auror training. A substantial number of guests were killed as well, including twenty other younger students, and two professors."  
  
Harry sighed. The silence was overbearing for the next few seconds, until Harry broke them out of it by suggesting that they take a look at the rest of the rooms in the castle.  
  
After spending an hour showing them through the castle, going from the highest room in the central turret, down to the bottom dungeon level, and unfortunately coming across several sets of skeletal remains still shackled to the wall, Harry decided to show them his own personal additions to the lower levels. "If you would step this way," He said, while motioning for the group to follow him. He bent down and lifted a trap door, revealing a staircase going down into the island core. "I found a cave system hidden under here yesterday...probably used by the former occupants to store treasure. I found it fitting for its current use." They followed him into a large cavern, that was about the size of the dining hall in the castle.  
  
"This is where you're putting the new vaults?" Hermione guessed.  
  
Harry nodded, "Yes," He walked to an opening in the cave wall, just barely higher than him. "There's seven of these smaller caverns. Mine and Sirius' vaults will take up about three caverns each, leaving one more for Order money and valuables." Harry stepped further into the cavern, and took out the chest containing the contents from his family's vault. He returned it to its former size, and opened the top. He set it on the floor, and stood over it, concentrating. A blue light shone out from the body, and slowly after a few seconds time, items began flowing out, arranging themselves in order along the walls, and then in the middle of the cavern. After it was filled to capacity, though still allowing room to move between the stacks of items, he moved onto the next cavern and repeated the process, and again after that one was finished. He then did the same for Sirius, until six of the seven caverns were filled with millions of galleons, thousands of books and scrolls, an armory of ancient weapons and armor, and hundreds of other artifacts.  
  
Sirius was quick to enter his vault and levitate a trio of galleon and gem filled chests, and move them into the Order's cavern. Harry followed suit and levitated several chests of galleons and sickles, then added part of the stacks of gold and silver bars as well.  
  
"Hermione," Harry began, breaking her from her thoughts. "My vault has a library of old books and scrolls in it. Can you help me move some of them up into the castle library?"  
  
Hermione's eyes lit up, and you could practically feel the excitement bubbling around her. "Of course! The library up there needs to be filled, there's no telling how much knowledge you have down here." She began mentally sorting through which types of books would go where, and other ways to sort of them.  
  
"Take my library as well." Sirius said. "It's probably all books on the dark arts, but some of it could probably come in use at some point in time."  
  
Hermione's joy doubled, and she looked as if she'd just won the biggest lottery jackpot ever.  
  
Harry took Hermione by the arm and lead her up the stairs, back into the lower levels of the castle. "Hermione," He began, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't want to say anything in front of anyone else, but if you ever need or want anything from my vault, take it. Any amount of money you want, as long as you leave me enough to retire with and live comfortably on." He said, looking at her with a sincere expression.  
  
"Harry, that's very generous of you, and I'm grateful for the offer...but you know I won't take anything." Hermione replied, resting a hand on his forearm.  
  
Harry smiled, "I know, but the offer stands. I'll be setting the barriers to allow you unlimited access to it all. You've believed in me and been my best friend for thirteen years. I won't ever forget it, and I want you to know how much I appreciate you." He took her hand that was on his forearm and gave it a soft squeeze, then continued up the stairs to the first floor.  
  
Hermione followed, with a smile of her own.  
  
About an hour later, Harry and Hermione were sitting in the library sorting books onto the shelves. Boxes had been conjured to hold them by topic until they could get around to being placed on shelves. Three rows of shelves had already been filled, but there seemed to be no decrease of the ancient tomes still left unsorted. Tonks and Sirius had taken to running between the library assisting with the sorting, to being kicked out by Hermione for being more of a nuisance than a help, to examining the castle grounds, looking for any possible ways up from the ocean. Remus and Snape, being much more conservative than the other two, were busy trying to decipher the ancient charms placed on the weapons that remained in the castle armory.  
  
"I think this has a version of the Reducto charm on it," Remus remarked, as he slowly moved his wand up and down the edge of a battle axe. He stood and picked the axe up, then conjured a small table. He drew back the axe and swung it towards the table, connecting with a loud crunching noise, followed instantly with an explosion as the table was propelled backwards and reduced to smoldering debris. Hermione ran out of the library with a terrified expression on her face, followed by Harry who was grinning widely, having already figured out what the explosion was.  
  
"What was that?" Hermione screeched, as she saw Remus holding the axe with a triumphant grin on his face.  
  
"This axe has an impact triggered Reducto charm on it. Quite ingenius..." Remus responded, while rubbing his hand over the axe-head.  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes and stalked back into the library. Harry continued grinning. "Wait until you find the sword that has Victus Corripio woven into it. I guarantee you'll love that when you're injured in battle." Harry winked and followed Hermione back into the library.  
  
Remus looked confused, and turned to Snape who was watching Harry's back with a look of surprise. "What is Victus Corripio?" Remus asked.  
  
Snape turned to him and raised his eyebrows, "It's an ancient dark arts curse that steals the victim's life energy and pulls it into your own. If you're injured, as Potter suggested, it will heal you just as fast as any medical potions. Due to the nature of it, it was banned by every wizarding government in the world, and had anyone that used it executed." He turned back to the rack of swords in front of him and began searching for the sword. Remus looked back to the entrance of the library for a moment, then joined Snape in the search.  
  
Harry was still grinning when he kneeled back down next to Hermione, and pulled another box of books in front of him. Hermioned looked at him and frowned. "Honestly, it's just an axe with a charm on it. Not the greatest thing in the world." She muttered.  
  
Harry laughed, "But it's brilliant." He laughed harder as she shook her head, focusing her attention once more on the books.  
  
"Okay, here's how they're organized," Hermione began, after pulling everyone into the library an hour later. "Books on the Dark Arts take up the back seven rows of shelves," She looked at Sirius, "That's almost a quarter of the library." Sirius looked abashed and muttered a curse at his ancestors. Hermione smiled slightly and continued. "Hexes and curses take up the following four rows, charms and transfiguration take up the next six. Potions..." She trailed off as she saw Snape already taking several potions books off the shelves and sitting down at a table with them. She shook her head and continued. "Potions take up an additional four, then history and miscelleneous take up the remaining ten. Everything is organized in alphabetical order, and I'll place a searching charm over everything so people can find something by thinking of a topic."  
  
Everyone looked quite pleased, except for Snape, who likely didn't hear her as he was engrossed in a dictionary sized potion book. "Hermione, Sirius, Remus, Snape, you should probably all be getting back to Hogwarts before Dumbledore starts to get suspicious." Harry spoke up.  
  
Hermione had a look of horror pass over her face, "You're right, we've been gone for three hours. Dumbledore is sure to be wondering where Snape is by now."  
  
Harry nodded and turned a plate from a nearby table into a portkey. "This will take you back to the Shrieking Shack. I'll join you back at Hogwarts in a couple of hours after I modify these wards." He handed the plate to Hermione. Snape grudgingly left the books and came over, as well as Sirius, Remus, and Tonks. "Tonks," Harry said. "Can you stay behind for awhile so we can discuss some Ministry things?"  
  
She looked at her watch for a moment, then nodded. "I've got about a half hour until my shift at Azkaban begins.  
  
Hermione looked slightly disgruntled for a moment, then said to Harry, "Just come to my room when you get back. If I'm not there, the password is Marauders. Just make yourself at home until I get back." Harry smiled and nodded, then activated the portkey, sending the five back to Hogwarts.  
  
Tonks turned to Harry, "So what do you want to know?"  
  
"Why did you join this order?" Harry asked her.  
  
"What?" Tonks looked confused.  
  
"Why did you join the Order of the Lion? Why do you think I'm innocent?"  
  
"Because Sirius does, and from my little experiance with you, you didn't seem like the mass murdering type."  
  
Harry searched her eyes for a moment, the nodded. "I believe you."  
  
Tonks smiled. "I'm glad."  
  
"So how many Aurors does the Ministry have?" Harry asked, changing the subject.  
  
Tonks looked thoughtful for a few seconds, drumming her fingers against her thigh. "Just over two thousand, I think."  
  
Harry processed this and sat down at one of the many tables occupying the dining hall. Tonks sat next to him and looked at him.  
  
"How many people are in the Order of the Phoenix?"  
  
"The entire membership is kept hidden from everyone, so that potential traitors or spies can't doom everyone to a hit list. I'm in the inner circle, so I know more than most...the circle has thirteen members, counting Dumbledore. General membership is over seventy people, that's all I know." She said.  
  
Harry rose to his feet, and motioned to Tonks to follow him. He walked to the stairs that lead to the upper levels of the castle, and climbed them. He didn't stop climbing until they were in the turret on the roof of the castle. They had stopped in the upper most room, which likely belonged to a Seer when it was in use, and Harry stood at a large open window, looking at the surrounding ocean. "I like the view up here. I discovered it yesterday, and immediately decided to set this room off as my own."  
  
Tonks stood next to him, her much smaller frame all but dwarfed by Harry. "How did you survive Azkaban, without being completely insane right now?" She quietly asked, looking up at him.  
  
"Who says I'm not?" Harry grinned and winked at her, then stepped away from the window into the middle of the room.  
  
Tonks finally took a good look around the room; It was medium sized, and circular. The floor was some form of dark wood, and the walls all sloped inwards as they rose, as they were essentially the same cone shaped roof that all the turrets had. The room, at eye level she noticed, was a good six meters across. The ceiling came together at the top several meters above her head, and there were windows all around, spaced evenly a foot apart. Each window was set three foot off the floor, and were about three feet wide, and four feet high.  
  
She was interrupted from her subtle examination of the room when Harry began speaking again, "I'm not going back to Hogwarts tonight. Whenever you're able to, inform Hermione and the others that I want to call a full meeting with every member of the order here, as soon as concievably possible. The more time we waste, the closer the Ministry comes to stamping out the rights and freedoms of the populace, and the closer Voldemort comes to bringing the world into his grasp. I have a war to fight, and I need to know who will stand beside me."  
  
Tonks looked slightly afraid of the prospect of a war on four different fronts for her -- being an Auror and fighting for the Ministry, as well as being in the Order of the Phoenix and fighting for them, and now the Order of the Lion fighting for them against the Ministry as well as Voldemort -- but stood up straighter nonetheless. "I'll stand beside you, as I know Hermione, Sirius and Remus will as well." She said with conviction, "Snape isn't much good for fighting though, the sneaky bastard is too good at spying for that." She added in a far lighter tone.  
  
Harry grinned, "I know that you would be risking more than most, so I have my own plans for you." He said.  
  
"And what are those?" Tonks asked, raising her eyebrows.  
  
"That would spoil the secret, my dear Tonks." Harry cheerfully replied, while walking back towards the stairs.  
  
Tonks let out an indignant growl and followed him, starting a rant about how keeping secrets is bad.

* * *

Several hours later, Harry was perched at the top of the roof of the turret. He had climbed it by hand, and now sat at the top, an arm and a leg curled around the point to keep from falling off. He was watching the sun set over the ocean, and marvelled at the simple beauty of nature. Under that setting sun at the horizon, was Ireland. The nation that was home to the Quidditch team that he watched before his fourth year at Hogwarts, when the Weasley's had invited him along to the World Cup with them. It was one of the highlights of his youth, and he still fondly remembered the game. Not the company, aside from Hermione, but the game itself. He rarely thought about Ron or the other Weasley's, outside of perverse fantasies focused around the graphic and vengeful genocide he had planned for the family, down to the smallest detail, for the past seven years. He had spent the first year in Azkaban trying to think of ways that Ron could've been coerced into 'witnessing' the murders that Harry supposedly committed. It was a sad, and even more bitter day when he finally accepted that Ron sold him out. It took many ranting letters from Hermione and the others to convince him of it, but he finally started to believe them. Sold out by his surrogate brother. Harry still didn't know why, or for what reason, but his blood boiled whenever he thought of it. His eyes had darkened tremendously with this line of thought, but not in their magical way, with a bottomless sea of black surrounded by a flicking, electric blue...his eyes were darkening from their former vivid, bright green color, to a dark forest green...his jaw was clinched and his eyes narrowed in rage. He felt the power building up in him, and he let out a furious, growling yell at the sky and thrusted his free hand in the general direction of the castle grounds below him. A radiant fireball of red and orange shot from his hand and hit the ground in the blink of an eye, causing a bright, and very audible explosion. Harry was pushed back slightly from the shockwave, and had to tighten his grip on the roof to keep from falling. After righting himself, he saw the dust clear, a very handy effect of a visibility ward, and a rather large crater in the ground from the explosion. Harry looked slightly surprised, and examined his hand. 'Huh. I'm pyrokenetic.' He thought.

* * *

Harry awoke the following morning, feeling rather stiff, which was quite a normal occurance, having woken up stiff every morning for the past eight years. Light filtered into his newly declared bedroom/lounge, and he sat up from the rather hard and unforgiving wood floor. The sun was rising over the barely visible coast of the Isle of Man, and gave off some rather fascinating reflections on the ocean.  
  
He felt slightly fatigued from the previous nights' magical activities, where he spent a good six hours modifying the wards inside and outside of the castle to suit his needs, placing dozens of security charms, wards and barriers protecting the vaults, and discovering, then destroying a hidden series of boat docks at the bottom of the island. He came across those merely by chance, but felt very lucky that he had. Along with the possible beach head enemies could exploit, he found a hidden stairway leading up from the docks to the castle grounds. He supposed that it was only logical, as the Celts and the Vikings needed someway to get from their boats to the castle, and then back. Harry did well to fix that security flaw, mainly by destroying the foundations of the docks and sending them underwater, then starting a controlled landslide to wipe out the stairway, and then retired for the night. It took a lot of patience and careful precision to deconstruct the wards protecting the docks and stairway in order to destroy them, but the payoff was a fortress that was now much safer.  
  
Harry liesurly took his time down the long set of stairs to the dining hall, and entered the kitchen. The kitchen was a somewhat large room that was completely empty. It was located at the NorthWest end of the castle, behind the curved wall of the dining hall. Harry looked around, and scratched his head, realizing, obviously, that there would be no food or ingrediants left in the kitchen. Even perishables protected by magic couldn't last several centuries. He grumbled, and conjured a new set of clothing to don, then walked out of the kitchen and made his way to the castle armory.  
  
Harry exitted the castle several minutes wearing a pair of black cargo pants, loaded with various weapons in the many pockets, and a simple plain black tshirt. The bottom of his shirt covered a belt that wound its way around his waist, that bore many bladed instruments sure to cause much pain and suffering if unleashed in a violent way. He stood for a moment, enjoying the fresh morning air that had the slight smell of salt from the ocean, then disapparated away.  
  
Harry arrived at Number 4 Privet Drive to a very strange site. His aunt and uncle were willingly conversing with a pair of obvious wizards. He had apparated into his aunt Petunia's garden, directly under the living room window, and immediately caught wind of the conversation.  
  
"As you are Mister Potter's only living relatives, you are entitled to one quarter of the contents of his vault, due to his death." One of the wizards said.  
  
Harry heard a sob, obviously fake, and then his aunt spoke up. "My dear little nephew...I can't believe he's dead..." She trailed off, faking more sobs. Obviously, the wizards believed her grief to be real and Harry could hear one of them, a woman, speaking of soft soothing words to the seemingly distressed woman.  
  
"How much money is in that vault, and why do we only get a quarter of it?" Uncle Vernon's rough voice cut in. He sounded as if he were faking sobs as well, but doing a far worse job of it.  
  
"The Potter's were one of the oldest families in the wizarding world, and their wealth was great because of it. The Potter vault, at last inventory which took place a year ago next month, consisted of roughly thirty-seven million galleons, or in your muggle money, around two hundred and twenty million pounds," At this, Petunia and Vernon broke into louder howls of 'misery', as their nephews death hit them harder. The wizard lowered his eyes, as if in remorse for the grieving family, and continued. "You are only entitled to a quarter of the money because, due to wizarding law, the victim's families will get one quarter each, and the Ministry of Magic will also get a quarter."  
  
Harry grimaced as his aunt let out enough loud sob. Just then, Harry heard a popping sound, associated with someone apparating or disapparating nearby. The former was true this time, and Harry saw a blue robed wizard running up the drive, and into the house. This unexpected entry caused a shriek of surprise from Petunia, and Vernon nearly fell over.  
  
"McIllian, Rogers, you're needed back in Diagon Alley right away." The new wizard panted out. The other two wizards nodded, and thanked the Dursley's for their time, then apologized for their loss, before leaving the house. Harry cast an invisibility charm over himself and followed the wizards, listening into their conversation.  
  
"What's this about?" The woman asked.  
  
"Gringotts was broken into yesterday, the Potter and Black vaults were completely emptied. Weasley is recalling all Ministry personnel around London, to Diagon Alley. I heard that the goblins are furious that the Ministry allowed someone with that much power, free reign to walk around without being tagged for watch. They're threatening to revolt."  
  
The other two wizards gaped, not unlike a fish, as the newcomer finished. Without another word, the three disapparated, presumably, to Diagon Alley.  
  
Harry chuckled to himself, and returned to the living room window, where he overheard Petunia and Vernon talking.  
  
"Why did that boy never tell us how much he was worth? We could've moved to Majorca years ago!" Vernon growled.  
  
"Now now, Vernon, he probably didn't even know. His parents probably didn't even know either, the fools that they were. Nobody that had access to that money could be so...foolish." Petunia haughtily declared.  
  
"Right you are, right you are." Vernon agreed.  
  
"Oh wait until my little Dudley gets home, he'll be so pleased to hear that we're getting a new house!" Petunia gushed.  
  
"A house? Not with that kind of money...over fifty million pounds, we can get a castle!" Vernon exclaimed, not even trying to hide his glee, making him sound eerily similar to a squealing pig.  
  
Harry decided now would be a good time to step in, as his stomach was beginning to rumble. He hadn't missed the very delicious smelling breakfast that was currently sitting half eaten on the kitchen table.  
  
Wordlessly, he crawled in through the window, and dropped his invisibility charm, causing Petunia to scream, and Vernon to faint dead away.  
  
Harry sighed and shook his head, then walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, helping himself to a large helping of everything. Petunia recovered from her shock and advanced into the kitchen herself, weilding a vase as a weapon.  
  
"Who are you?" She screeched.  
  
Harry turned around and faced her, glaring coldly.  
  
"I asked you a question!" She screeched louder, causing several birds outside to chirp in response.  
  
Harry sighed again and raised his hand, lifting the fringe of his hair up, revealing a lightning bolt shaped scar.  
  
Petunia fainted.  
  
Harry grinned and went back to enjoying his breakfast.  
  
A/N: I was tempted to keep going with this chapter, as I'm in a writing mood, but decided that since it was at a good stopping point, that I'd just...well, stop. And then post it. Immediately after this is posted, I'll begin work on Chapter 6, and according to plan, have it out within the next few days. Contrary to my previous beliefs that I had when starting Chapter 1, I'm actually still having fun while writing...I figured I'd last a couple chapters, then bomb out and add this to the Hall of Unfinished Fics, of which I'm an honorary member. :P To everyone, thanks for the reviews...they're flattering, though a couple were merely...confusing. I'm sure you know who you are. Until next time!(eta: Monday)  
  
P.S. My apologies if there's any typoes...I wrote almost all of the last three quarters of this chapter in the past couple hours(in which I took several breaks...eating, researching the Isle of Man, reading a couple chapters of Acceptance of Fate by Arya(you should read it, if you aren't already.)), and I'm impatient to upload it, as I have to go watch a Tour de France special...three minutes ago. 'Tis all. 


	6. Chapter 6

Everything but my OC's, the plotline and whatnot that you don't recognize, belongs to JKR. If somebody wants to sue me, you'll have a hard time catching me, as I will be likely to flee to a non-extraditing country in South America, cackling all the way about el loco gringo federales.  
  
Yeah. So this chapter is later than planned...a surprising social life popped up out of the middle of nowhere and disrupted my writing schedule. It inspired me to write a comedy, but nothing for this. And then a bit of writer's block hit me. I know what is going to happen in this chapter...and the next, and the one after that, but I had a whole lot of trouble writing it all.  
  
A bigger chunk of the meeting with Naylajaratim will be revealed in the coming chapters. Much will be explained. Have no fears, I've not forgotten about my favorite OC.  
  
Harry was on his third slice of toast when his uncle Vernon finally woke up, sputtering many choice words as he saw the, as of yet, unknown wizard daring to eat at his table.  
  
"You! What are you doing in my house? Get out now!" He roared, then spotted Petunia laying in a heap on the floor in the doorway of the kitchen. Immediately thinking the worst, he leaped over her, making the floor and surrounding walls shake, and charged at Harry, who still sat hunched over his plate, without a care in the world.  
  
Harry almost casually rolled out of the chair and across the floor as Vernon lunged at him. Vernon missed, and crashed through the table, succeeding in waking up Petunia.  
  
"Vernon!" She shrieked, rushing to his side.  
  
Harry rose to his feet, and went back over to Vernon, pushing Petunia aside and hoisting Vernon to his feet. He then lifted his shirt tail up, and used his free hand to draw out a very sharp and wicked looking hunting knife from its resting sheath at the small of his back. He held it loosely in his right hand and pushed Vernon against the refrigerator with his left hand, holding his hand around his throat, making his eyes bulge out as he gasped for air.  
  
Petunia was frantic now, and tried reasoning with Harry. "Harry, put the knife away, please? You wouldn't want to harm your family, would you?" She spoke softly. Harry could've been fooled if he hadn't lived with them year round for ten years. As it was, he merely sneered at her and made her back away by pushing the point of his knife rather close to her throat.  
  
"Well, Uncle Vernon...it's not polite to attack a visitor in your home." He smirked at Vernon, who was gaping in surprise as he realized who was holding him against the refrigerator with a knife ready to cut his eyes out.  
  
"Now see here, boy!" Vernon began to roar again, thinking he could easily escape from his worthless little nephew.  
  
Harry grinned wickedly and slung Vernon across the kitchen, crashing into several cabinets and busting them open. "Yes, Uncle Vernon?" He replied.  
  
Vernon clutched at his side that he ran into the counter with, and fell to his knees. He looked up at Harry, an expression of rage taking place on his face. He stood and charged at Harry again.  
  
Harry very nearly rolled his eyes, and stepped aside, punching out with his right hand.  
  
Vernon howled and ran into the refrigerator, eliciting an even more painful howl, and fell onto his back. Petunia screamed as she saw the knife buried hilt deep in his gut, blood seeping out from the wound.  
  
Harry stepped over Vernon, and removed the knife from him, wiping it clean on his shirt, before placing it back its sheath. Harry held his hand over the stab wound, and a pale, red light shot out from the palm of his hand, enveloping the wound in its light. Slowly, the wound began to close, and the blood stopped seeping. "I've wanted to hurt you so bad for so long..." He softly spoke, addressing both his uncle and his aunt, "But now that I have the opportunity to get revenge for all the years of hell you two have put me through...I honestly don't give a shit anymore. I have far more important things to do, than waste my time with you two." He kept his voice low and soft, but the anger in it was for from quelled. Petunia looked ready to faint again, and Vernon was too shocked from being stabbed, and then healthy again a few seconds later, to utter a word. Harry stood up, and waved his hand over Vernon's head, whispering "Obliviate." Then did the same to Petunia. He grabbed a piece of bacon from a miraculously unbroken plate, and calmly walked out of the house.  
  
Harry apparated back to the castle grounds, and walked through the entrance, into the dining hall to find a surprise waiting for him.  
  
Hermione stood glaring at him, arms crossed, and frown in place. "You didn't come back last night." She stated.  
  
"Didn't Tonks tell you I wasn't coming?" Harry asked.  
  
"Yes. But why didn't you?" She asked, lowering her arms and softening her gaze.  
  
"I had to work on the security of the castle. I decided after you left that I should get it done right away, because I want a meeting with everyone as soon as possible." Harry looked at her, and Hermione lowered her eyes. "Why's it such a big deal?" He asked.  
  
Hermione shrugged absently, "I was just looking forward to sitting down and talking with you...yesterday in the library was the most fun I've had in years, and I was wanting to do it again."  
  
Harry smiled warmly. "Well, I could go and knock all the shelves over, mess up all the books...we could start over and do it again." He suggested, raising his eyebrows a couple times and winking.  
  
Hermione looked horrified at the thought, as purposely messing up the order of a library was borderline sacrilege to her. "Harry!"  
  
Harry laughed, and gave her shoulder a squeeze.  
  
"So where were you?" She asked, while taking Harry's hand and pulling him into the library.  
  
"Why are we going to the library?" Harry asked, while looking confused.  
  
Hermione shrugged. "Best place to talk." She simply said.  
  
Harry shrugged as well and sat down in one of the uncomfortable straight back chairs that Hermione had pulled in there the day before. "I went to the Dursley's for breakfast."  
  
Hermione sputtered in surprise, but quickly regained her composure. "Forgive my language, but why in the hell would you go there for your first breakfast as...a somewhat free man? What if they somehow get wind to the Ministry that you were there?"  
  
"I obliviated them after leaving. Vernon should also have a nice inch wide scar right above his belly button to remember the morning by. Not that he'll remember where it came from, or who gave it to him. But anyway," He continued through Hermione's held up hand and question of 'Scar?', "When I arrived there, I hid under the living room, and listened to a conversation going on inside. Apparently, I'm officially declared dead, and there were two ministry types there to break the news to the Dursley's, and let them know that since they're my only living relatives, they're entitled to one quarter of my vault's money, which I learned came out to somewhere around the fifty-five million pound range. I tell you, those Dursley's were quite distraught to hear about my death, and were quite passionately heartbroken to learn that all they had to remember me by was the enormous sum of money from my vault."  
  
Hermione took a moment to process this, and glanced up at Harry. "So you're officially a dead man?"  
  
Harry nodded. "Yes, I am. But this is where the fun bit starts...right after they tell the Dursley's of this, another ministry type apparates in, and runs into the house to get the other two, tells them that they're needed immediately in Diagon Alley. I cast an invisibility charm on myself and followed the three of them down the driveway to listen to them. The new wizard told them that Gringotts was broken into, mine and Sirius' vaults were taken, and the goblins were threatening to revolt. He said that Weasley, Arthur, I presume, was recalling all Ministry personnel around London, to Diagon Alley. After that, I went into the house, made my aunt and uncle faint a couple times, got jumped by Vernon, stabbed him, grabbed a piece of bacon," He held up the evidence here, a half eaten slice of bacon, "And came back here."  
  
Hermione had gasped quite loudly upon hearing that the goblins were threatening to revolt, but that was soon forgotten after hearing that Harry had stabbed his uncle. "You what?" She practically screamed, making Harry automatically cringe backward.  
  
"He was attacking me! I stabbed him, then pulled the knife out and healed him, then obliviated them both and left. He's perfectly fine." He assured her, although she still looked livid.  
  
She took a deep breath, and Harry could tell he was about to be on the receiving end of a very long, and presumably, very loud rant. He quickly put his hand over her mouth, and ignored her muffled protest.  
  
"He's fine, Hermione. I was just defending myself, and then I healed him. Neither of them will remember a thing, and will likely assume it was a burglar that busted into their house and broke their table, ransacked the kitchen and left them both unconscious, valiantly trying to defend their home." He said, slowly and surely, making sure that Hermione got the point. Evidently she had, because she lowered her head and exhaled the waiting breath.  
  
"That's still not a very nice thing to do, Harry." She stated.  
  
Harry grinned widely. "Oh, I know." He whistled merrily and summoned a random book from one of the Dark Arts shelves, and began flipping through it.  
  
Hermione watched him for a couple minutes, remaining silent. Harry noticed her watching, and looked up, raising his eyebrows. "What?"  
  
Hermione shook her head, "Nothing. Anyway, the Order of the Lion has been called, everyone will be at Tonks' residence tonight at seven o' clock."  
  
"Everyone's able to make it on such short notice?" Harry asked.  
  
"Yes, surprisingly. The message said that it would be the most important meeting in the history of the Order...so I guess everyone was able to swing their schedules to allow it. The only one that won't be there is Snape, as he's been summoned by Voldemort. He wouldn't be there anyway, since his role and membership in the Order is secret from everyone but the high council." Hermione answered.  
  
"Excellent." Harry smiled.  
  
They remained in the library talking for a couple more hours, until lunch time. Harry suggested they go into muggle London for lunch, and she agreed, as long as he'd disguise himself. Harry complied, and soon afterwards looked like a normal, but handsome, muggle; his hair was lightened to a dark brown, and fashionably styled. His eyes were changed to a shade of warm brown, and the lightning bolt shaped scar disappeared. Lastly, he conjured a blue silk suit and donned it, giving him a rather rich look. He next took out a very old, bright gold pocket watch that he had come across amidst the treasures in his vault. He slipped it into his pocket, and faced Hermione. She nodded approvingly, and transfigured her clothes into a simple, yet elegant black dress. Harry smiled, then destroyed his innocent look by, once again, attaching the belt, complete with knives, around his waist. He ignored Hermione's audible gasp at him wearing so many stabbing weapons under his suit jacket, and walked into the armory. The previous night, he had moved some of the weapons from his vault, into the castle armory, so the selection was much greater. He chose a pouch full of throwing stars, and used a sticking charm to attach it to the inside of his jacket over his left breast. He then took a small dagger, complete with sheath, and attached it to his right ankle. To complete his mobile armory, he chose a very deadly looking knife, with an eight inch long blade. It had a leather wrapped one handed pommel, and the blade was serrated on one side, smooth on the other. Harry looked at his jacket for a moment, then transfigured the right side of it so that it now featured a sheath that the knife would fit into.  
  
"What do you plan on doing with all those?" Hermione asked, while smirking.  
  
"Defend us." Harry replied.  
  
Hermione shrugged, and stepped out of the armory, allowing Harry to pass by. Harry looked around for a moment, then pulled a broken, foot long piece of a spear shaft from a corner, and turned it into a portkey.  
  
A couple of hours later, Harry and Hermione reappeared in the castle, both looking rather pleased and full.  
  
"Well," Harry said, "That was the best meal I've had in eight years."  
  
Hermione smiled, and reclaimed her seat in the library.  
  
"Where is everyone else?" Harry asked, sitting down as well.  
  
"Well, you know about Snape. He was summoned early this morning, by the way. Sirius and Remus are at an Order of the Phoenix meeting. Tonks ended up informing Dumbledore about the Ministry's galleon train, and the planned attack on it. Dumbledore has decided to put a few of our people in the area, so he called all of the field agents up, excluding Tonks, who's on duty with the Ministry for another hour or so."  
  
"Do you know who he's going to put there?"  
  
Hermione shook her head. "I don't know. I guess we'll find out when Remus and Sirius get out of the meeting. Speaking of which, you'll need to give me a portkey to go get them and bring them back here. I told them to go to Tonks' house and wait for me."  
  
"Where does she live?"  
  
"61 Unicorn Plaza, Magampton, England." Hermione replied.  
  
"Magampton?" Harry asked.  
  
"Magical community outside of Southampton." Hermione replied.  
  
Harry shrugged and complied, turning a small book into the requested portkey, and handed it to Hermione. "There."  
  
Hermione took it, transfigured her clothes back into her normal robes, and placed the portkey into a pocket.  
  
"So, you never answered me yesterday...what is dear old Ronald doing these days?" Harry asked, with a barely noticeable maniacal glint in his eyes.  
  
Hermione noticed the glint, however, and looked a bit wary to respond. She bit her bottom lip in contemplation, causing Harry to tap his foot impatiently. Finally, she decided to tell him, deciding it would be best if it came from her instead of somewhere outside during a fight where it could possibly affect him enough to cause a lapse in judgement. "He's the Magistrate of one of the Auror divisions."  
  
Harry laughed. "Bullshit. Who in their right mind would appoint that bumbling git to that high of a command position?"  
  
Hermione almost laughed as well, but managed to restrain herself. "Ron entered Auror training immediately out of Hogwarts...I still firmly believe that his OWLs and NEWTs were forged by someone inside the Ministry, but no proof. Anyway, he used his brotherly connections with Percy, who at that time was Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, to rise through the ranks and get the command position of an Auror squad just out of training. He spent a couple months there, fought in a few minor skirmishes, and then the war in Romania took place. A lot of Commanding Officers were killed there, so Ron was promoted all the way up to Company Commander." Hermione paused here to think for a few seconds, then resumed the story. "After the return to Britain, Percy pulled some more strings, and Ron was promoted to Battalion Commander. I guess he's just stayed in his commanders' good graces, and used his family's political influence to get to where he is now."  
  
Harry grimaced, but remained silent.  
  
"Well, I'd better go see if Sirius and Remus are out of the meeting yet. We'll probably not return right away, but wait until the rest of the Order arrives. How do you want everyone to get here? Several portkeys and everyone at once, or just a few portkeys and only small groups of people at a time?" Hermione asked, while pulling the portkey out of her pocket.  
  
"I'd prefer small groups at a time. Bring Sirius and Remus first, they can act as...crowd control," He smiled slightly, "Until everyone is here. Once they're all here, take them up to the Meeting Hall. Don't answer any questions that might suggest that I'm alive. Such as questions related to the discovery of this castle, Gringotts' break-in, etcetera." He finished speaking, and turned on his heel to leave the library.  
  
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.  
  
"To make the entrance hall more presentable. That's where everyone will be portkeyed to." Harry replied over his shoulder.  
  
Hermione looked after him for a couple seconds, then tapped her wand to the portkey, activating it and then disappeared.  
  
Harry paced through the entrance hall, conjuring statues and placing them in the nooks that lined the walls. The statues were in the shape of various people and creatures throughout history. One was in the shape of King Arthur, another of Genghis Khan. There was one of King Leonidis, of Prince Hector, of William Wallace, Atilla the Hun, and many others. Lastly, came two statues on either side of the door. One was of the clearly recognizable Merlin, and the other was...somewhat less familiar. It was a tall man, with long hair sweeping behind him, as if being blown by a strong wind. He had a well defined face, with a square chin. His mouth was set into a grim frown, and he was wearing an unrecognized form of battle dress. It appeared to be a flowing chain mail robe. It was clasped tightly from his neck, down to hips, and fit snugly to his torso, outlining broad muscles. From his hips down, the robe was open and sweeping behind him in the same fashion as his hair. The arms were fitted snugly from the shoulder to his forearm, where they began to flare out. His leggings consisted of thickly armored pants, with guards over his knees and feet. Each of the guards had long, sharp spikes turned up and out from the body, ideal for striking upwards into an opponent's body. Similar spikes protruded outwards from the back of his boots, and he wore long gloves over his hands. The gloves looked very thick, and were complete with two rows of half inch spikes along the knuckles, and a plate of shorter, quarter inch spikes over the backs of his hands. He held a long staff like weapon diagonally across his body. It was about five and a half feet long, and had large double axe- head like blades on each end. The blades were about ten inches long from bottom to top, and foot long spear-heads were at the bottom of each end, sticking out seven inches further from the tops of the axe-heads. Over all, it looked like a very formidable weapon, with many ways to cause severe amounts of pain and damage.  
  
Harry grinned at this statue, which was by far the most detailed of the lot. He momentarily thought about changing it's drab, cement gray color to life like colors, but dismissed it. He lit the chandelier overhead, then turned his attention to an empty spot above the dining hall doors. He looked thoughtful for a few moments, then concentrated his energy and conjured a large plaque like object. He levitated it to the spot above the doors, and charmed it to stick in place. He examined his work closely, and smiled in acceptance. The object was a crest, about a meter tall, and two meters wide. It had a lion across it, standing straight, with its head regally held up. The near-royalty looking crest was given a darker appearance by the snake tail crushed beneath its front paw, and the head hanging lifelessly as the lion's jaws ripped into its neck. The crest was completed by a slogan at the bottom, reading, 'Betrayers of the innocent, followers of the Dark, leaders of the weak, the misguided masses; Truth and justice shall be dealt.' Below these words, a set of runes were also displayed. Harry gave the entrance hall one last look, then went through the doors and into the dining hall.  
  
At seven 'clock that night, members of the Order of the Lion began portkeying into the entrance hall of the castle. Harry watched them from above, hidden in a darkly shadowed alcove above the front gate. Sirius arrived with the first group of eight, and herded them over to a wall, where they began examining the nearest statue and looking around the hall in curiosity. Remus arrived next with ten more, and they began doing the same. Hermione then came with another group. Hermione portkeyed back out of the hall to retrieve more members, while the twenty-four members that were already there, took the alcoves containing the statues, and began looking them over. Harry clearly heard them asking questions; What castle this was; who found it; why they were there, were the predominant inquiries. Several minutes went by, and Hermione finally arrived with the last group, which included Tonks.  
  
After gathering everyone into a double file line, she lead them, accompanied by Sirius and Remus, into the dining hall. Harry stood up from his crouch, and climbed back through the small door that lead him to the second floor. It was a handy point for an ambush; an unnoticeable alcove nestled above the front gates, looking down into the entrance hall. Harry closed the door to the alcove, and made his way to the stairs, and up to the meeting hall.  
  
Several minutes later, the entire membership of the Order of the Lion, minus Severus Snape, entered the meeting hall. They took in the sight with barely concealed wonder, and even Hermione, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks, who had been in the hall before, were shocked as well. Instead of the normal stone floor that the table and chairs had previously sat on, there was now a thick, dark red rug that stretched from end to end of the table. A magnificent emblem of a lion's head dominated the wall behind the head of the table, and several crystal chandeliers were suspended overhead, casting a warm golden light over the table. The walls were decorated with banners and flags, all sporting the same lion's head as the emblem on the wall, and framing the door were two more statues of Merlin and the unknown warrior. The final change to the previously Spartan room, was the addition of a large, throne like chair at the head of the table. It was high backed, and had snarling lion heads carved out of the ends of the arm rests, where the occupant's hands would rest. It was made of a darkly colored wood, and there was currently someone sitting in it. The members of the Order looked on in nervous trepidation, as Hermione and the others recovered their composure and strode forward to take seats at either side of the throne. Hermione was on its immediate left, Sirius on the right. Remus and Tonks sat next to Hermione and Sirius, respectively.  
  
"Won't you all be seated," Harry asked, while remaining masked in shadow and a billowing black, hooded robe. Nobody seemed to recognize his voice, which didn't surprise him in the slightest. After all, he had gone to Hogwarts with none of them.  
  
"Hermione, Sirius, what is the meaning of this?" One of the men Harry recognized from Diagon Alley, Jonathon Timmerly, if he remembered correctly, asked.  
  
"Jonathon," Hermione replied, "Please come sit down. And the rest of you as well. Your questions will be answered once the meeting has begun." She waved her arm at the chairs surrounding the table.  
  
Slowly, and very reluctantly it seemed, people began taking seats. There was a slightly humorous, in Harry's eyes at least, scramble for the seats at the far end of the table. The closer they would get to him, the more nervous and slow they would seem to get.  
  
"Everyone sit down!" Harry roared, surprising everyone and making more than one clutch their chests. "We do not have all night just to get everyone in their chairs. I would like to get this meeting over and done with so I can progress with other things."  
  
Hermione gave him a questioning look, and opened her mouth to speak, but Harry cut her off with a raised hand.  
  
Everyone else was seated in short order after this, though they looked even worse than they did when they first saw him as they entered the room.  
  
Harry looked the table over, and saw that nobody else was still standing, and turned his head to Hermione. "Are we ready to begin?" He asked.  
  
Hermione nodded, and rose to her feet. "Everyone quiet down," She began, though the opening was hardly necessary as it was already completely silent. "This meeting of the Order of the Lion will now begin. Let it be noted that this is the first meeting where the entirety of our membership has been in attendance." As Hermione spoke, a charmed quill was scribbling frantically on a very long roll of parchment. "Before the standard meeting procedure begins, I would like to introduce everyone to our newest member, and owner of this castle that we are in." She motioned to Harry, whom was still unrecognizable to everyone else, and took her seat.  
  
Harry gracefully stood up, and clasped his hands across his stomach. His shadowed gaze swept the table up and down, making no point in masking his visual examination of everyone. "Firstly, you all have my gratitude for joining this Order. Secondly, I know you all have a great deal of questions regarding...just about everything, so I will try to answer as many as I can. So...questions, anyone?"  
  
Jonathon Timmerly slowly stood, and looked warily towards the head of the table. "Who are you?" This question was echoed by many others, and followed with nods and searching glances towards Harry.  
  
Harry smiled under his hood, and raised his hands to it. He lowered the hood from his face, revealing himself to everyone. "I'm Harry Potter." 


	7. Chapter 7

Meh. You know that writer's block thing? Well, I didn't have it. I've known what I've wanted to do for about this entire length of time that I've not posted any chapters, but...I just had no will to write. I really wanted to, so I'd open up the chapter, and place my fingers over the keyboard...but I just couldn't do it. :P But tonight, I finally got the urge to finish it, so here it is.

Okay. To my awesome fellow guy reviewers! I always swore to myself that I wouldn't take up five pages of a chapter solely on replying to reviews...but I feel that I must have some replies here, because you kick so much ass. :P

Gabriel Shans! We think alike. Seriously. With your reviews, you ruined the surprise of a part of my future plot, so...bah at you! Trust me, I was thinking H/Hr/T threesome before I even started writing this thing :P FFN would probably destroy me though if I pursued in such graphical ways that I would be interested in, so we'll see what happens :P

Gallandro! Yes, yes. Tonks would be a goddess. Changing appearances and everything...one couldn't imagine the fantasies I've...er, Harry could be having :P

I'd address more reviews, as I'm truly thankful for everyone's support...but it would take quite a long bit.  
  
A/N: Uncustomary non-spacing for paragraphs explained at end of chapter.

The silence continued for a few moments after this revelation. Everyone stared in shock bewilderment, and even fear. From the head of the table, there was a snicker. Heads turned to Sirius, whose shoulders were shaking in silent laughter. This was the ice breaker, and all of a sudden, the silence ended. Some people shouted, others cheered, and some even fainted. In general, chaos had insued.

Harry raised his hands, and boomed in a towering voice, "Silence!" Everyone quieted down and Harry gave them all a once over again. "I understand the questions and suspicions on your mind, so if you would please remain quiet, I will address the most obvious ones." Silence remained, so Harry nodded his head in approval and continued speaking, "I escaped from Azkaban shortly after it was destroyed. Somehow, I managed to survive the explosion, with only a few very severe wounds to tell for it. After I regained consciousness on what was left of the island, I swam out into the water and grabbed onto a Ministry boat, and hung on until it went back to shore. Once there, I made my way back to Hermione, who called in Sirius and Remus. Tonks joined us shortly afterwards, so that explains why these four don't seem the least bit surprised." Harry paused here to make sure everyone was still listening, and addressed a lone raised hand. "Yes?"

A young man who looked about the same age as Harry, rose to his feet. "How did you survive the explosion?"

"What is your name?" Harry responded.

"Thomas Finwell," The young man replied. "I'm the Assistant to the Minister of Security."

"Ah, yes. I've heard mention of you." Harry smiled, putting the man at ease. "To answer your question, I'm not sure how I survived. I vaguely recall a shielding spell being cast over me, and I guess it was strong enough to withstand the majority of the explosion." He looked down the table at the faces surrounding it, seeing some of adoration, happiness, relief, and others of suspicion. "To ask you a question though...You look about the same age as me, yet I don't recall seeing you or hearing of you at Hogwarts."

Finwell nodded, "My parents moved us to France when I was ten, so I attended Beauxbatons. After I graduated, I moved back to England. I was friends with Fleur Delacore...she's the one that convinced me there was no way you committed those murders."

Harry smiled, "Fleur was a good person. How is she nowdays?"

Several faces turned downwards at this, and Finwell responded with difficulty, "She went missing in Romania during the war there. No word from her since the day she was deployed."

Harry frowned and looked crestfallen for a moment, but quickly covered himself up. "I'm sorry. But let's continue on with this meeting. I know a few more obvious questions, and I shall answer them now. As for this castle; It is mine. I gained knowledge of it while in Azkaban, and learned that it had been abandoned for the greater part of the past century. After I escaped, I came here with these four and checked it out. It was still in great shape, so only minor touchups were needed. There is one thing that I need to add though, before anything else is answered." He paused here, looking over the table again, "Did any of you, by chance, notice the set of runes on the crest above the doors leading to the dining hall?" Just about everyone nodded that they had. "Very good. Do any of you know what they mean?" Everyone shook their heads no. "It's an ancient form of African rune magic, not very well known to the modern age. A crude translation of it is, 'Let go of a secret learned within these walls, and spend eternity breathed in flame.'" Harry drew silent to let everyone soak up this knowledge.

"What's that mean?" Someone asked from the other end of the table.

"You are?" Harry inquired.

"Dennis Ivers."

"It means that if you try to spill a secret that you learned of in here, you'll be placed in a body stasis and set fire to. I'm not sure exactly how the magic works, but I'm sure that it's quite painful. I did hear of one account where a warrior from one tribe tried to betray his brethren by telling their secrets, he was placed in something similar to a body bind, had his aging prevented and magic fueled into him to keep him alive...and was set fire to for several years, before he was broken out of it."

Everyone at the table shivered at the thought of it, and several had turned an interesting shade of green.

Hermione had a thoughtful expression on her face, and asked a question that was actually on a lot of peoples' minds, "An anti-aging spell is used? So why hasn't Voldemort used it in his quest for immortality?"

"All it does is prevent aging, not harm caused to the body. It has a few side effects as well. If it's used longer than a few years, even by the strongest witch or wizard, the magic required for it will begin to destroy the body. The first to go will be the central nervous system, effectively paralyzing you. That would be shortly followed by muscles, tendons, ligaments, and eventually brain cells. Basically, it's useless unless you want to torture someone forever. Which is what this magic is all about." Harry replied, looking slightly satisfied at having established a way to prevent spies among the Order.

Shudders swept through the room, and more people began to look sick.

Harry noticed this, and spoke again. "You all have the option now of leaving this order. Nothing will be held against you if you wish to avoid the danger of showing yourself in open alliegance to me when my live status is made known, so leave if you don't want this hanging over your head." Nobody moved, and Sirius grinned. Harry's gaze darkened, and he resumed speaking. "I'm telling you all now, that open war will be waged against Voldemort and anyone else that stands against us, namely the Ministry of Magic. You will not just be seen standing beside me, making a public appearance to try and appeal for the charges against me to be dropped, you will be seen fighting beside me, firing curses and hexes at everyone against us. There is a good chance that you will be captured, tortured, then killed. If you are not prepared to actively fight, then you should leave this room now, and nothing shall be held against you. We each have a purpose in life, and if you believe yours is surviving this war, then nobody else can influence your decision."

Several people rose to their feet at this, and made way towards the exit. Hermione jumped up in a panic, sending Harry a brief glare before addressing those that were leaving. "Please, everyone, stay. This war will not all be about fighting on the battlefields. There's other things that will be needed: Intelligence gathering; supply procurement; researchers; tacticians, and the list goes on! Soldiers are not the only thing we need." She looked pleadingly at the departing members; Several of them looked relieved, and sat back down, but still, a small group of them remained standing. One of them spoke up, "I believe in Potter's innocence, but I'm not willing to risk dying for it. When he goes to war, anyone that's discovered to be in this Order, will be hunted down to the end of the earth, by not only the Ministry, but by Death Eaters as well." He finished, and the others in his group nodded their agreement, and they all left the room.

With the membership at the table now seven less, Harry actually looked quite pleased. "Excellent. Now that the weeding out process is over, this meeting can be started."

Several people looked surprised, and Jonathon Timmerly spoke up. "Hasn't the meeting already begun?"

Harry shook his head, "No. That was just...a teaser, so to speak. Something to whet everyone's appetites. See who is serious about being in this order." A few people nodded in understanding, though the rest remained generally the same as before; Alarmed, scared, confused, suspicious.

"Again, now that the weeding out has been completed, the meeting can continue. All funding issues of the Order have been solved, and I plan for a pay system to be implemented, so that you will all be financially stable during the war."

The meeting went on for several hours, only being interrupted by te arrival of the same group that left, demanding to know how to get off the island. Harry laughed benignly, and provided them with a portkey back to the mainland. Continuing on as if nothing had happened, a rather large number of topics being brought up and addressed. It was finally ended, after many of the people at the table were forced to depart, having other engagements.

Hermione sighed wearily, and piled together several scrolls of parchment with the recorded transcript of the meeting. "What time is it?" She asked.

Remus glanced at a magical clock on the wall, and replied, "Nearly midnight."

Tonks jumped up from her seat, in a near panic. "Malfoy's attacking the galleon train in less than an hour!"

This caused Sirius and Remus to jump up as well, "I'm on the Phoenix team that's supposed to be helping in launching a counter-attack against them," Remus declared. "I'm late in getting to the rendezvous point." Remus took a portkey from Harry, and disappeared from the castle.

Sirius soon followed, telling Harry that he was required at the Order's headquarters to help coordinate the impending battle. Before he left though, Harry turned the portkey into a permanently working one, capable of sending the correct persons to the castle or away from it. Tonks took one as well, and went with Sirius, leaving Harry and Hermione alone.

"Harry, questions are going to be raised about this war. People are going to be questioning why we're fighting against the Ministry, instead of allying with them to defeat Voldemort." Hermione began.

Harry nodded, expecting this line of questioning. "And it's a reasonable question...but it also has a very obvious answer. Who is in command of the Ministry? People who condemned me. Ronald sold me out, and now he all but has an entire division of Aurors under his command. His father is the Minister of Magic, and Malaston...I know almost nothing about him, but I'm sure that he doesn't want me rising up, putting his quest for power in jeopardy. Add everyone else that's high up in the Ministry that have profitted since my imprisonment; They all risk enormous backlash if they stick their necks out and admit wrong doing, they will instead fight me to the grave."

Hermione nodded in understanding, and yawned widely. Harry smiled, and suggested that she get back to Hogwarts and go to sleep. She reluctantly agreed and took the portkey, which Harry had also made permanent, and went back to her quarters in Hogwarts.

Harry rose out of his elaborate chair and casually strolled out of the room, making his way up to what he had claimed as his personal domain, the tower at the top of the castle. He stood at one of the many windows, looking out to sea, where lights from a few muggle boats were visible. It had been a long day, but he wasn't as tired as he thought he would be. He thought back to the meeting, and the questions that were raised during it. He had done his best to answer them all in something at least vaguely resembling honesty, and for the most part, they seemed to believe him. There were however, a few suspicions remaining. Of that, he was rather pleased, as he thought that someone who started completely believing in something on such short notice, was slightly bent.

The meeting soon drifted from his mind as the time ticked by, and his thoughts began occupying themselves with the impending war. '_But before any curses can be fired_,' he thought to himself, '_A lot of preperations must be made_.' Preperations such as recruiting; With a mere thirty odd people in his 'army', he hardly had an effective fighting force. It would be good enough for guerilla tactics, but if large amounts of resistance was met, it could turn into a disaster. Harry himself would be the most valuable asset in battle, he figured that by himself, he could probably take upawrds of thirty Death Eaters or Aurors at once, but beyond that, dodging and blocking the hexes and curses could get tricky. He knew that he could cut a bloody swath through any army during battle, when the entire opposition was not entirely focused on him, but going solo against an army was entirely different. He had a few what he liked to call 'armageddon incantations' up his sleeve, but was reluctant to put them to use unless the situation was absolutely dire. '_Of course_,' he thought to himself, being solo against an army of trained warriors out for his blood, could probably be considered a dire situation.

Other preperations that needed to be made included security for Order members, supplies, and training. He figured that he had enough raw materials from his vault, that more than enough weaponry and armor could be made to dress up the current membership. '_At least of metal_,' he added as an after thought. Other materials were also needed to complete the armor and weapons, most especially leather.

Harry leaned forward onto the window ledge, looking but not seeing the ocean surrounding him. He was replaying events on his mind, specifically, the events leading up to his current magical status.

His mind drifted off to his meeting with Naylajaratim, leaving the present world behind.

_It had been hours since Harry first entered the ethereal realm in his dream like state, and he and the god had discussed much over that time. _

_"Harry," Naylajaratim began, "One thing you must remember when you regain consciousness, is that you are not invulnerable. There are limits to your power, and how much damage you can take. Your magical ability has been heightened, but as I said, there are limits to it. The human body can only funnel so much magic before it starts to combust from the raw kinetic energy. Also, this is only human controlled magic. The magical properties differ between races and species, and no two are alike. It's why elves can perform it wandlessly without a second thought, why Phoenix's can heal injuries with their tears, and ailments of the mind with their song. You will be very powerful in battle against fellow humans, and still very powerful against other races. But the magical abilities of the other races could be harder for you to fight against; Goblins, elves, centaurs, veela, and banshees being the most prominent."_

_"The goblins are very powerful, why do you think Gringotts has never been broken into? Not a single knutt has ever been stolen from there; It's more than just dragons that protect the vaults in the lower levels...it's goblin magic as well."_

_"Veela...you've had experiance with them, have you not? Masters of manipulation, even over the strongest willed creatures. You know what they're doing, how they're doing it...but you're powerless to stop yourself from being bent to their will."_

_"Banshees...it takes vast power to be able to produce a scream that will knock out, or even kill a fully trained witch or wizard. You can ably fight against all of these creatures, but you have to be on your guard. Their magic is different from humans, so it will be different combat from what you're used to. You were able to fight off the Imperius curse, even though it was cast by a very powerful wizard, so you have a very strong mind, fully able to fight off the seduction of a veela...but it is not guaranteed that you will be able to ward off your mind enough to resist the will of an entire clan of them."_

_Harry remained silent for a few moments, taking Naylajaratim's warning to heart. "So my powers against humans will be stronger than against other races?"_

_"No," The disembodied voice answered. "They won't be stronger or weaker against anyone; They remain the same. But different races respond differently, and are effected differently than humans. What may kill a human, may only injure another creature, and vice versa. It will take experiance with each race on your part, to figure out the best way for you personally to fight them."_

Harry drifted back to a normal, awake state, and resumed his casual observation of the waters surrounding the island. He pushed himself away from the ledge, and made his way to the stairs. Slowly, thoughtfully, almost hesitantly, he made his way down the stairs to the dining hall. Once there, he strolled into the kitchen and was struck, not for the first time that day, that he really needed to get some food in there. He also thought that he really needed to update the kitchen wares. Brick and clay ovens were not exactly the rage in the current fashionable castle. He decided that the next morning, he would take a trip to the mainland and order a stock of consumables. Until then, he decided that he would take a closer inventory of the war supplies in his vault.

The variety was expansive, Harry discovered. He had so far spent the past fifty minutes cataloging the first four racks, and he still had a good half dozen to go. He lifted a sword off of the rack, and pulled it from its sheath. The blade was double edged, sarrated towards the hilt, and was a good forty inches long. The hilt was silver plated, with runes engraved into the surface, while the pommel was about ten inches long, and wrapped in black leather. The bottom of the pommel was circular shaped, and another rune was engraved into it. Harry felt an immediate attraction to the sword, and held it up closer to the light. He ran his finger over the flat of the blade, and admired its smooth, cool feel. He returned the sword to its scabbard a moment later, and summoned an old leather belt from a nearby rack. He ran the belt through the loops of the scabbard, and drew it around his waist, buckling it. He now had himself a weapon, and intended to try it out as soon as he finished cataloging the rest of the weapons and armor.

He was just finishing the fifth rack, which had several dozen bladed weapons, and a rather beautifully crafted long bow, when he heard a crash echo down from the dining hall, followed by a frantic scream. Harry quickly replaced the bow and took off running for the stairs. He took them four at a time, bounding up them in record time, getting to the dungeons, and then bounding up the stairs to the dining hall. He crashed through the semi-opened door, and found Tonks screaming her bloody head off, "Harrrrrrry!"

Harry rushed forward, concern showing on his face. "What is it?"

"Harry!" Tonks screamed again, upon seeing him. "It was an ambush! You have to get to the train and help!"

"What happened?" Harry asked, trying to slow Tonks down.

"Malfoy had already taken the train long before the Phoenix team arrived, and they were just waiting for them. It's a massacre, they put up anti-apparition and portkey wards. Half the team is already down, you have to get there and help!" Tonks screamed even louder.

Harry's expression hardened. "Remus?"

"He was still fighting the last I heard. Sirius had me rush here to get you after he found out what was going on." Tonks replied.

Harry told Tonks to stay where she was, and he disapparated, appearing immediately in his vault. He ran to one of the armor racks and chose a black and silver colored helmet from it, and a pair of matching gloves. He donned them, and disapparated back to Tonks, now fully concealed. "I'm going to apparate to Remus, you go back to Sirius and watch in on the battle. Remember, nobody knows who I am." With that, he disapparated.

Harry apparated directly to Remus, tearing through the anti-apparation wards like they were made of paper, terrifying the remaining Phoenix members in the process. Several wands were turned to him, as well as a few reflex curses. Harry threw up a shield without really thinking about it, looking for Remus. He found him crouched behind a pile of crates, firing curses left and right down the walkway, to the other end of the car. Harry looked to where he was aiming, and as if on cue, a flurry of green lights came flying towards their location. Harry reflexively ducked, and jerked his head towards a Phoenix member who was currently trying to break through his shield with the Cruciatus curse. Harry growled under his breath leaped to one side, lowered the shield and slammed his fist into the wizard's jaw, dropping him unconscious to the floor. Harry looked at the rest of the Order members who were still alive and fighting, most of which, including Remus, were currently turned to him, attacking him again. He raised the shield again, and took stock of who was there. He noticed that Charlie Weasley was one of them, as well as someone who looked suspiciously like Seamus Finnegan. Harry finally grew tired of their ceaseless attacks on him, and barked at them, "Do you see me attacking you? Pay attention to your enemies, you idiots!"

Finally realizing that it was Harry, Remus was quick to lower his wand and yell at the others to do the same. Harry gave a barely perceptable nod of thanks to Remus, then lowered his shield. He began creeping foward to an edge of the crates that were currently offering protection, and then stopped. He turned, looking at Charlie Weasley, who seemed to be stuck between watching him, and the Death Eaters at the other end of the car. Harry solved his dilemma by raising his head to look him in the eye.

Charlie tore his watchful gaze from the Death Eaters, to look into a pair of gradually darkening emerald green eyes. Eyes he had seen before, but not for a good many years. He tried desperately to place the exact time he had last seen them, and who they belonged to, but his musings were cut short when the figure whose eyes were in question grabbed a piece of piping that had fallen from a shelf and weilded it baseball fashion, swinging it into the side of Charlie's head. Charlie was knocked across the floor, immediately unconscious, with blood gushing from a severe head wound. A whispered, "Karma," was heard along with a low chuckle, and he had vaulted over the crates, and sprinted towards the Death Eaters before the shocked Phoenix members could raise their wands.

Harry grinned at the surge of adrenalin that enhanced his already lightning quick reflexes, and allowed him to dodge the curses that were now being aimed at him from both the 'light', and the 'dark' sides. He leaped foward and rolled when he hit the ground, coming up and jumping high into the air, and over a section of shelves and tables that the Death Eaters' had toppled over for cover. He landed on the other side, amidst a seven man unit of Death Eaters. Harry briefly wondered where the rest were, as he assumed that more than these seven had done the ambushing. He pushed his wonderings to the back of his mind, and barreled his way into the middle of the surprised Death Eaters, not recognizing any of them due to the traditional white masks and full length robes. He dropped to a crouch and pushed his hands outward, banishing four of the Death Eaters into the wall, accompanied by several loud cracking noises. Harry rolled to his right, and kicked out with his right leg, hearing a satisfying pop from a nearby ankle, and a loud scream of pain. He pushed himself to his feet and dodged the bright green light of the killing curse, and jumped at the person that had casted it, kicking out at him while in the air. His left toe caught the offending wizard under the chin, and lifted him off his feet, propelling him over their protective barrier, and was immediately hit by several curses and hexes. Harry looked at the remaining two Death Eaters that were not either unconscious or writhing in pain on the floor. He looked into a pair of cold gray eyes behind the mask of one of them, and summoned the mask to his hand.

Draco Malfoy crouched unmasked, glaring at the unknown assailent that had, in a matter of seconds, handily defeated five of his best men. "Who the hell are you?" He snarled.

Harry spared the other Death Eater a glance as he began shouting the killing curse, and waved his hand in a slicing motion at him. A blade of red light flew towards the Death Eater, and connected with him at the stomach, ripping through him, and effectively cutting his body in half. Both halves fell to the floor with a wet thump, and Malfoy's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Join the Dark Lord; You have anger built up in you. He will reward you well for your efforts." Malfoy requested, after tearing his gaze away from the mangled corpse of his body guard, one Theodore Nott.

Harry laughed; It was a disturbed laugh, one with years of anguish and near insanity built into it. Malfoy backed up a step and began figuring out the best way to get off the train. "Ask me that a couple years ago, and I might've been tempted," Harry responded, "But now, I'd rather castrate myself with a dull axe." Harry laughed again, and let his years of hatred of the person in front of him swell through his veins. His breathing quickened, and his eyes darkened to a nearly black shade of green, he opened his right palm at his side, and a fireball began forming on it. He curled his fingers around it like it was a grenade, and slung his hand outward, releasing the ball of fire. Just before releasing it, Malfoy whipped a vial out of a wrist holster, and threw it at Harry's feet where it shattered and turned into a billowing cloud of smoke, the fireball came streaking through it, barely missing the diving Malfoy. It impacted with a wall right behind him and waves of fire streaked out of it, covering the walls, cieling, and floor for several square meters. A tendril of the flame wrapped itself around Malfoy's ankle, causing him to scream in pain as it quickly burned through his robes, and began working its way up his leg.

Harry heard Malfoy scream out the Fluvius charm as he chanted a whirlwind into existence to clear away the smoke. By the time it had cleared away a few seconds later, a side door of the train car was open, revealing the landscape rushing by. Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. Harry rushed to the door and poked his head out, looking for him. He saw a rapidly retreating figure on a large magic carpet, and aimed several choice curses at it, but the distance was too great. Harry cursed violently, and strode to the opposite wall where one of the Death Eaters was waking up. Harry kicked him in the face out of frustration, promptly knocking him out again. At this point, Harry felt his sword softly knock against his knee, causing him to look down in surprise. He felt disappointed that he forgot that he was wearing it, as he was looking forward to trying it out. A curse suddenly slammed into his chest, knocking him back a step, and causing pain to erupt from his heart. Harry winced, and tried to draw his magic around him. He looked at the slowly advancing Order of the Phoenix members, and dropped to a knee, getting behind cover. Placing his right hand over his heart, he projected a small amount of healing magic into it, reducing the pain enough to concentrate fully.

A Reductor curse hit the barrier of tables and shelves, sending them exploding backwards; Harry dropped to his stomach to narrowly avoid being flattened by a shelf unit, and reached his hand outward, grabbing the wrist of one of the unconscious Death Eaters. He then disapparated them both, leaving nothing but a couple more unconscious Death Eaters to be found.  
  
A/N: Wow. I'm irritated now. And really pissed off. FFN won't keep any of my tab formatting, even when I've put it in manually with the QuickEdit thing. I'm sorry I didn't take more time to try and figure it out, but I really wanted to post this tonight. So anyway. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, thanks for all of your reviews in the past. I really appreciate them.


	8. Chapter 8

"Interrogation" sequences straight ahead! If it bothers you, then you have problems.

Harry and his prisoner apparated directly into the dungeons of Lion Castle, as Harry affectionately called it. He levitated the unconscious form of the Death Eater, and shackled his wrists to chains hanging from the wall; They were wet and rust covered from the endless amount of moisture that had been festering in the dungeons for nearly a millenium. Harry picked up a nearby chunk of stone that had been dislodged from a wall, and hit it against each of the chains. Neither of them gave, and Harry nodded his approval. They may have looked weak from the rust, but they were still sturdy enough to hold until he could replace them.

Three hours had since gone by, and Harry was smiling contentedly at his now unmasked prisoner. He had let the man wake up on his own from his slumber, not feeling any need to hurry the interrogation. Harry vaguely recognized him as one of Malfoy's cronies from Hogwarts, but couldn't place a name to his face, nor did he particularly care; He would find out everything he needed or wanted to know without further delay.

"Who are you? Where am I?" The prisoner groggily asked, mistakenly taking Harry's smile as a friendly one.

"I'm your executioner, and you're in my office." Harry cheerfully replied.

This seemed to shock the prisoner into awareness, and made him realize his wrists were chained to the wall.

"Now let's get this straight right away; I don't want to waste needless time with your protestations of ignorance and refusals to let anything go. The only possible way for you to avoid ending up chained to that table over there," He gestured to a long wooden table with a spike ridden metal rack suspended over it, "Is to truthfully answer every question I have to ask, and no lying."

The prisoner's eyes widened in fear, but he remarkably seemed to compose himself a moment later. "Whoever you are, the Dark Lord will find you and kill--"

Harry cut him off by landing a well aimed punch to the prisoner's mouth. "Oh yes, I know. Your little 'Dark Lord,'" He sarcastically stressed the title, while making air quotes with his fingers, "Will find me, and he will kill me. But you're forgetting the fun part; He won't kill me at first, he'll kill my family, making me watch. He might even cast Imperio on me and make me kill them myself, and _then_ he'll kill me. I've heard it before, you wanker, so save your breath. You'll need it for screaming."

The prisoner's face scrunched up in fury at the mocking of his leader, and he thrashed against the wall, trying to kick out at Harry. "You're nothing to the Dark Lord, he wouldn't even deem you worthy enough to kill himself, he'll let someone else do it!"

Harry hit the prisoner again, breaking his nose, and slamming the back of his head back against the stone wall. "That's enough, prisoner. This place is unchartable. No portkeys. No apparation. No communities nearby. There's also some interesting defensive wards in place that block your master's ability to see through his minion's eyes. Delightful place, don't you think?"

"Nobody can hide from the Dark Lord. He will still find you, and you'll be forced to bow before him, before dying." The prisoner spat, hitting Harry with blood.

Harry sighed and wiped his face off, shaking his head in exasperation at the prisoner. "You're starting to bore me, and that's not good for your well-being. I hope you've not forgotten that table over there, because I sure haven't."

The prisoner did nothing but glare.

"Let's start with something simple. Tell me your name."

"Callahan, Peter Callahan." He snobbishly replied, as though his name was of some great importance.

"Never heard of you." Harry absently replied, angering Callahan.

"I suppose you're some filthy mudblood, having never heard of me or my family? That would make sense. The Dark Lord is going to have--"

"Shut the fuck up about Voldemort already." Harry snapped.

"You dare speak his name?" Callahan's voice rose to a demanding shout.

"Raise your voice at me again and I'll pull out your toe nails and shove them into your eyeballs." Harry said in reply. This shut the prisoner up, and Harry continued his interrogation. "I suppose that since you deem your name to be important, you're some inbred pureblood pansy boy. How you lower your 'amazing' standards enough to be a half-blood's bitch is beyond me." Harry deliberately taunted, grinning at the fury that was showing on Callahan's face. "Remember what I said about your toe nails and your eyeballs. I wasn't kidding."

Callahan thrashed about in rage, but never came close to hitting Harry.

"Now that we've got your insignificant name out of the way, let's go to more important things; How did you know that Ministry forces were going to be at the train tonight, in order to ambush them?" Harry asked.

"The Dark Lord knows all." Callahan almost serenely replied.

"He doesn't know where you are, now does he? That makes you a liar, which makes me angry. I thought I said no lying to me?" Harry clucked his tongue and shook his head in disappointment. He waved his hand, causing Callahan's Death Eater robe to vanish, leaving him in nothing but a plain t-shirt and his boxers. Harry waved his hand again, and the shirt vanished. "For each lie you tell, you earn one mark. So far you have spoken one lie, thus you have earned one mark. Do you understand the process?" Harry patiently asked, as though he was speaking to a well-liked student as opposed to an enemy prisoner. Callanhan just stared. Harry shook his head again and summoned a knife from a table against the wall.

Callahan's eyes widened at the wandless magic, and then widened further in panic when he took in the ten inch long, rusted blade that was in his captor's hand. "No! Don't!" He begged.

"Too late." Harry slowly stuck the point of the blade into Callahan's skin, just below his right collar bone, drawing a hiss of pain from the prisoner. Harry then drew the blade across his chest, ending at the left collar bone. Callahan bit his lip to keep from screaming, and succeeded in doing so.

"Now," Harry continued, "How did you know that Ministry forces would be there to be ambushed tonight?"

"Torturing prisoners is against Ministry regulations, they'll have your head for this." Callahan replied.

"Refusal to answer, and thinking that I give a flying fuck about the Ministry, equal out to two more marks." Harry countered, raising the knife again.

Several screams later, and the prisoner had two additional cuts going across his chest, spaced an inch apart. Callahan was panting, and blood was pouring from the wounds. Harry suspected that he would die of blood loss relatively soon, if preventive measures were not taken. Thus decided, Harry summoned a small fireball over his palm, much to the dismay of Callahan, and directed it towards the prisoner's chest. Callahan screamed as the fire dug into his wounds, cauterizing them and charring the surrounding flesh.

Harry's interrogation was interrupted as the heavy wooden door to the stairs slammed open and Hermione came streaking in, yelling his name. Harry jerked around in irritation at the intrusion, though he had been expecting it.

"Harry..." The prisoner whispered, and a dawning look of comprehension spread across his face. "Harry Potter! I knew I recognized you!" Callahan screamed in rage, "My master was most disappointed when he learned that you 'died' in the Azkaban explosion, he's going to be very pleased to learn that you still live. He wants the pleasure of killing you, himself."

Harry slammed his fist into Callahan's right eye, again knocking his head back against the wall. This drew a gasp from Hermione, accompanied by a louder gasp as she took in the prisoner's state of health. She narrowed her eyes and stalked towards Harry, grabbing him by the elbow and forcefully dragging him out of the dungeon, and into the stairway.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing, Harry?" She furiously demanded.

"I _was_ getting information vital to our war efforts, Hermione." Harry heatedly replied.

Remus, Sirius, and Tonks came down the stairs then and stood outside potential swinging range of the arguing duo.

"You're torturing a prisoner! If you torture a prisoner, you're sinking down to their level!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry raised his eyebrow, and smirked slightly, "This is war, Hermione. Shit happens. If you want to beat your enemy, then you need to break your enemy; Make the bastards fear you before the fight even begins. Why do you think Voldemort has been stomping all over your asses for the past eight years? Because everybody is scared to death of his very _name_."

"Harry's right, Hermione," Sirius spoke up, "It's time to stop being lenient with Death Eaters."

"We don't have to be lenient, but we also do not have to resort to torture!" Hermione practically screamed.

"Then what do you propose, laying out a tea set and refuse to offer him anything?" Harry sarcastically asked. "Hermione, that bastard in there would not hesitate a second to cast Imperio on you and will you to suffocate your own mother, and then stab your father to death. He would not hesitate a second to put the Cruciatus curse on you, even when you're unarmed, and hold it until you're gripped by insanity. He would gladly put a body bind on you, and violate you in any way imaginable. Yet you wish to have _mercy_ on these sons of bitches? I watched what they did every night while I was in Azkaban; You would beg for me not to tell you some of the things I saw them do, you would claw your eyes out if you were to see what they did. They are monsters, pure and simple. I will grant no mercy, and I will not just break, but I will shatter every one of them that I come across."

Hermione's eyes were brimmed with tears by the end of Harry's tirade, and she hugged him. Harry looked on in confusion, but returned the hug. Hermione broke out of his grasp, and quietly spoke, "I still don't condone it, but I won't try and stop you." That said, she turned and ran up the stairs.

"Well said, Harry." Sirius spoke up. Remus and Tonks had remained conspicuously silent throughout the mini-speech, and Harry looked at them in question. Remus fidgeted slightly under the gaze, "I will have to agree with Hermione here. Torturing prisoners make you no better than Voldemort himself."

"Oh bugger that," Tonks growled, "Give them everything they deserve, if the bloody Death Eaters are hardcore with their loyalty to Voldemort, then they better learn the consequences of being captured by us."

Harry smiled at Tonks, and she batted her eyelashes in return, making him laugh.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at the two, but remained silent. Remus turned and walked back up the stairs, but before reaching the top, he called back, "By the way, Harry, that was a rather crunching blow you delivered to Charlie back on the train. Madame Pomfrey had a fit when she saw how much blood he lost. He's alive and awake though." He gave a final nod, then followed Hermione's footsteps.

"I have more information I want to get, so I'm going to go back to work." Harry said.

Sirius and Tonks nodded, and turned and made their way up the stairs as well. Harry opened the door to the dungeon and walked back in, eying the prisoner as he did so. Callahan looked very distraught, much to Harry's pleasure.

"I hope you heard the conversation that took place behind that door," Harry stated.

Callahan nodded mutely.

"Good. Then you know how much pain I would very much like to inflict on you. Just give me the tiniest excuse, and I'll show you some agony that Voldemort can't even begin to conjure.

"The Dark Lord knows more about the Dark Arts than you will in a hundred lifetimes."

"Does he?" Harry asked with a smile, which utterly spooked Callahan. "Can you be so certain of that fact? Voldemort cast the killing curse on me; It failed. Voldemort cast the Imperious curse on me; It failed. Voldemort cast the Cruciatus curse on me; I didn't break. I'm the sole survivor of the Azkaban explosion; Coincedence? I think not. I could just break into your mind and rip out any knowledge that I want, but that leaves far too high of a chance of you being left insane." Harry drilled into Callahan's mind as an example, and took control of his brain and ignited his nerve endings, making him scream in pain.

Callahan's body convulsed in agony, and his eyes rolled back into his head. Saliva began running from his mouth as he relentlessly screamed, and he lost his bladder.

Harry finalled let go, and pulled out of his mind. The pain began dying for Callahan, but it was a gradual process. "Do you see what I can do to you?" Harry finally asked, as Callahan returned to as much a state of normalcy as he could, after an event such as that. "The feeling of doing that is intoxicating, and I want to do it again, I hope to do it again. But I'm a reasonable man, so if you tell me everything I want to know, then I won't do it again. Do you understand?"

Callahan nodded, as his body remained trembling slightly.

"Good. Now, how did you know to ambush the Ministry forces on the train tonight?"

An hour later, Harry strolled back into the dining hall of the castle, and met the looks of the occupants. Snape had been added to the group by now, and was sipping a cup of coffee. "The Order of the Phoenix has a spy in their midst," Harry declared.

"How could that be? Dumbledore is so careful." Sirius said.

"Mister Callahan doesn't know the name of the person, but he's male, and is in a position to know things such as when and where Phoenix field agents will be out in force."

"You captured Peter Callahan?" Snape asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Harry nodded, with a grin. "He was very cooperative after I began taking...extreme measures with him; Squealed like a pig."

"Yes, I heard about your new interrogation techniques. I must say, Voldemort's followers will be a bit more nervous about being caught, if this gets out." Snape allowed an evil grin to surface, as Harry nodded knowingly.

"I agree. We just need to work out how it's going to be done. I can easily wipe myself and everybody elses names from his memory, but Voldemort will know that it wasn't a Ministry abiding group that caught him, when he sees what's left of him."

Harry and Snape's potentially devious plotting was interrupted as Snape's Order of the Phoenix amulet began alerting him of something.

"An emergency meeting has been called by Dumbledore," Snape said. Looks of confusion from the other members met this, as their amulets had not gone off.

"I wonder what's going on," Hermione worriedly said, as she bit her bottom lip.

"Professor," Harry spoke up, "Can you open your mind to me and allow me to watch the meeting through your eyes? I have a suspicion of the meeting topic."

Snape looked extremely wary about letting Harry into his head, and took several long moments to consider it. "Very well. But you better not start poking around in places you don't belong." He scowled.

"I promise." Harry solemnly stated.

Snape nodded, still looking aprehensive about it, and opened a door in his mind to allow Harry access. Harry softly extended his mind out to Snape's, and connected with it. He could now see through Snape's eyes, and hear through his ears. Harry nodded that he was in, and Snape portkeyed away.

Snape, with Harry piggy backing, arrived in Tonks' basement, as that was the default location for all Lion portkeys now. From there, he disapparated to a dark alley connecting to Grimmauld Place, and then he walked the rest of the way to the house at number 12. He entered the house, and swept into the kitchen, with his usual surly expression firmly implanted on his face. The entire Inner Circle of the Order was seated around the table, minus Hermione, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks. Snape lowered himself into his usual chair, and waited for Dumbledore to begin the meeting. Harry briefly wondered where Arabella Figg and Dedalus Diggle were. He was somewhat surprised when Snape's voice echoed in his head in response to the question, "They were killed in Death Eater attacks. Figg; About five years ago. Diggle; Two years ago."

Harry and Snape both paid rapt attention as Dumbledore signalled the beginning of the meeting. Whispers around the table drew to a halt, and everybody watched Dumbledore.

"I believe that Harry Potter is alive, and is in hiding."

That simple statement threw the table into chaos, with shouts of defiance and growls of anger resonating through the room. Snape slammed his fist down on the table, and everyone quieted down, looking at him. "If you're all done acting like first year Hufflepuffs, maybe Albus can explain further," He sneered, while glaring at the lot of them. "I, personally, would like to know how Potter supposedly escaped the claws of death, yet again."

Everyone seemed to quietly come to their senses and agree with this, aside from Molly Weasley, who was still in hysterics, "That brute is going to come after my poor Ron, I know it! He will never forgive him for putting him in Azkaban: It was Ron, on his own, that did it. He was so brave, and now he has a killer after him!" She cried to anyone that would listen, while Arthur Weasley tried to comfort her.

"Yes..." Snape seemed to take malicious pleasure in responding to her, "Potter will undoubtedly be after your...hero," He stressed the word, while raising his eyebrows only slightly, "Of a son, and he will, also undoubtedly, cut him open from head to toe, drain his blood out, then drink it. Especially seeing that Weasley never did, and never will, hold a candle to the power and skill of a peaceful Potter, let alone an Azkaban induced rage and psychosis. So perhaps you should stop your blubbering and allow Albus to explain what he's talking about, so we can take appropriate measures to stop Potter." As he drew to a close, Harry was laughing his ass off in Snape's head, nearly bringing out a smile in Snape.

"Severus, that was unnecessary." Dumbledore sternly spoke, looking at the Potions professor. Snape merely shrugged, not caring either way if Dumbledore approved of his methods for shutting people up or not. "However, I do need to explain myself, so if I can have everyone's silence for a few short minutes?" Dumbledore looked around the table, catching a nod from everyone.

"Good. As you all well know, Azkaban was consumed in a magical explosion several days ago. After Professor Granger was informed of this, I let her sort her grief out on her own, in her quarters. Precisely an hour later, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin entered her quarters; There they remained for several more hours, presumably consoling one another. I decided to check up on them, offer them services from the kitchens, and such. Just prior to knocking on Professor Granger's door, I heard Sirius yell out 'Harry,' and I made my presence known. It took several moments for Hermione to open the door, but once I did enter, I noticed impressions on the rug next to her fireplace, where a chair would sit. The chairs were not there, and Hermione, Sirius, and Remus each had their own chairs in place. After inquiring about Sirius' yell, in which he replied that he nodded off and had a dream, I noticed drops of blood on the floor. I then left, and spent the next couple days mulling over these events, trying to come to a conclusion. I had my suspicions then, but couldn't afford to alienate those three any further by casting accusations." He paused here, and looked around the table to make sure everyone was still following him. They were, with the rapt attention that a first year muggleborn would give to their first class.

Dumbledore continued, "My final bit of evidence came to me just a couple short hours ago, in the form of Charlie Weasley. As you know, Charlie was struck in the head with a near fatal blow, from the masked asailant that was apparently neither with us, or against us," He drew off as Molly Weasley again started sobbing, as Arthur resumed comforting her.

"Charlie is in good health now, largely in part to Madame Pomfrey's significant skills as a healer, and he is awake. He has told me that the last thing he saw before being struck unconscious, was the assailant's eyes. They were a vivid, almost unnatural shade of green." Dumbledore stopped speaking, as Minerva McGonogal gasped.

"Lily Evans...Harry Potter." She whispered.

Dumbledore nodded, having obviously come to the same conclusion.

"How could that be?" Kingsley Shacklebolt demanded, rising half way out of his seat. "He disapparated through anti-apparation wards. Some of the best duelists and Aurors in Great Britain were in our task force, attacking him when he arrived. He held up a shield that deflected everything, even the Cruciatus curse, with such ease that it was like they were flies! His power was palpable, it was almost smothering. He physically attacked the Death Eaters, and was more agile, faster and stronger about it than any person I've ever seen. He literally sliced Theodore Nott in half with a spell that I have never seen or heard of, wandlessly. He manhandled them, and then showed off a talent of pyrokinesis by summoning and directing a ball of fire at their leader. His attention to us was obviously distracted in his face off with their leader, and after he escaped, he was too furious to notice us getting ready to attack. As you know, I sent a dark curse at him, the heart rupture curse, and it hurt him. But he was able to throw it off, and once again, tear through the anti-apparation wards, that time with a prisoner piggy backing. The Harry Potter I knew wouldn't stand a virgin's chance in Knockturn Alley of coming out of there unscathed." Shacklebolt ended his thoughts on the matter by slumping back into his chair, looking more than a bit disturbed.

"Shacklebolt brings up good points," Snape spoke up, "Potter wasn't nearly good enough to stand through that. Not to mention, he was a small figure going into Azkaban, Merlin knows how decrepit he would look after eight years in there." Snape ignored Harry's snort, but almost laughed when Harry muttered about still being far better of a wizard than dear old Ronniekins would ever be, regardless of how he was before Azkaban. "Even though he couldn't have survived that situation," Snape continued in an after thought, "He would've fared far better than Weasley, who probably would've wet his pants in fear. At least Potter was more than advanced in his Defense Against the Dark Arts skill and knowledge." He smirked as Molly started sobbing harder, and Arthur rose to his feet in indignation.

"Severus," Albus warned, "Please refrain from making such comments. Ronald Weasley has contributed more than his share of work for the Light, in the past eight years. His courage is not to be doubted."

"If that's so," Severus countered, "Then why has he not joined the Order, instead of staying safely tucked away in his office?"

Arthur grew red in the face, and snarled at Snape, "Listen, Snape. My son has done more for our cause--"

"Arthur, please. Let's not start this." Albus' tone was pleading, "We have more important issues to discuss, such as if this masked assailant is really Harry Potter, and if so, how he gathered so much power."

Arthur reluctantly sat back down, though kept a furious glare turned in Snape's direction. Snape merely smirked, and absently wondered how Weasley was able to keep his cool in governmental gatherings.

Harry Potter opened his eyes, and smiled at the curious looks of Sirius, Hermione, Remus, and Tonks. It had been an hour since the meeting began, and he was quite pleased with how it turned out. "My suspicions were proved correct: Dumbledore believes that I live still, and am the 'masked assailant' from the galleon train. The Order's Inner Circle believes him, but are slightly wary. You four are now considered threats to the safety of the Order of the Phoenix, and will gradually be pushed out of the Inner Circle, and fed disinformation while they actively hunt me. The battle lines have been drawn, my friends. Looks like you're on my side of the line." Harry smiled, almost happily.

The other four looked somewhat torn; Their love and loyalty of the Order of the Phoenix was now at an end, and with it, a legacy that took up good portions of their lives. They each met Harry with a gaze of steel, though. They were prepared to stand at his side and march with him into the gates of hell if necessary.

Remus snapped out of his determined mind set, and recalled an event that happened right after Harry disapparated with the prisoner from the train, "Harry, right after you disapparated from the train, an owl flew in through the door, bearing a letter. I saw that it was addressed to you, and took it." He handed the letter to Harry, who looked at it curiously, while discreetly examining it with magic to make sure no surprises were inside.

Harry opened the rough, heavy paper letter, and took out a single piece of parchment.

_Harry,_

_I see that you took advantage of your reading materials, and quite pleased with your success. I'm also pleased with your ability to hide, as this is the fourth time I have tried owling you since Azkaban went up in flames. My owls have all returned, still bearing the letter, leading me to believe that you found somewhere nice and secluded, completely unplottable. This will be very important in the coming weeks, as you will no doubt see. I will keep this letter short, since I'm very impatient when it comes to writing things._

_I want you to meet me in Glasgow, in two days time. This is imparative. Write a reply to this letter with your acceptance, and leave it behind the Merlin statue at the corner of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, by six o' clock, tomorrow evening. I will owl you again with an exact location in Glasgow, and a time._

_A friend_

Harry raised his eyebrows slightly, and took a piece of parchment and scribbled onto it. He set it on a nearby table, and wondered who it was that wanted to meet him.

This concludes chapter 8...you probably all are very disgruntled about my lack of updating skills...I can't offer much in the way of defense, except that I kind of forgot about it for a couple weeks. Anyway, a lot's happened since my last update...went to Ozzfest in Raleigh, crowd surfed during Slipknot...fun stuff. My area of residence(Western NC) has suffered several tens of millions of dollars of flooding damage from Hurricanes Frances and Ivan(the bastards). Water was six feet above the road just a couple miles from my house, washing away lots of things, such as running water and power :P

And now, I'm heading into Jeanne. Going to Florida in about seven hours to grab my mom, and come back home. Hopefully there won't be much action before I get back out.

FFN screwed up my tabbing thingamajigger again. glares

Oh, and if there's any grammatical errors in this chapter...please forgive me. My beta reader is never online anymore(furious fist waving), so blame her. Her name is Katy Roedel, and she lives in Long Island, New York. She has a user name on ffn, but I don't feel like looking it up. Has something to do with the word "Uber"...I think. Anyway, she posted a review to my last chapter, saying "Fuck you!"...etc. So yeah, that's her. Flame her if there's any grammatical errors that upset you :P

By the way, her phone number is...hahaha, just kidding, Katy.


	9. Chapter 9

You. Miscreants. I'm trying to be kind of authentic British like, or as much as my North Carolina self can manage without knowing any British folk in person. Therefore, when I say 'football', I intend for it to mean 'soccer'. Though if you couldn't have understood that on your own, I may have broken down and cried.

Wow. Was reading this fun little fic on ffn...was greatly enjoying it...and then...the bane of my HP fanhood...H/G. dies No warning whatsoever. Well, that's not true. There was a warning, and I caught it, and ran for my life. Oh how I loathe the H/G pairing. Every time I see it...it just enrages me, to the point that I sulk and avoid fanfiction for the next few hours. Unless I find something really cool to calm me down. Like...anything by Thesteffis. Or other fics that don't go down the H/G line. :P

Oh, how I dearly wish Eldryn didn't get sacked from ffn.

* * *

The morning sun had risen over the ocean horizon three hours ago, and the relatively cloudless morning left the sun to partake in beautiful reflections on the ocean surface. Harry was enjoying this view at the time, leaning on the window ledge. A waft of morning air ruffled his hair, making it stand slightly on end for a moment, before falling back in place. A soft knocking interrupted his rare, peaceful moment, and he frowned at the heavy wooden door that he had magically installed to ensure privacy in his bedroom. "Come in," He replied to the knock.

Tonks opened and stepped through the door, closing it behind her. Harry eyed her as she walked in; Today, her hair was waist length and royal blue, her eyes were a clear, bright violet color and she was a bit on the short side, only about five feet tall. Her face was heart shaped, and she took on a dancer's build. She was wearing a sleeveless, white sundress, and was barefoot. Harry thought, that with the slight build, and the long blue hair, she looked a bit like a faerie. His thought was reinforced when she skipped into his room, grinning an innocent, girlish smile. He burst at laughing, and she grinned widely.

"What was the first thing that came to mind, your Harryness?" Tonks inquired, smiling mischevously.

"That you looked like a faerie." Harry replied, completely serious.

Tonks laughed, "Excellent. I was going for anime princess, but your answer is just as good."

"Anime?" Harry inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"A muggle form of entertainment. The women have unnaturally large eyes, and exotic hair colors. They're usually very attractive, as well. Which I was also going for." Tonks batted her eyes flirtaciously, while somehow managing to look shy and downright lustful at the same time.

Harry grinned predatorily and slowly stalked towards her. He licked his upper lip as he got closer to her, and reached out to take hold of her arm. Before he could, she danced away from his grasp, grinning the whole way. "Sorry, Harry, but I have to get back to the Ministry." She winked at him, as he growled, then turned to walk back out of his room, swaying her hips all the way.

"Tonks," Harry called as she opened the door. She turned around and sent him a questioning look. "Tease." He simply said, then grinned. She winked again and swayed out the door.

Harry smiled and shook his head, amused by Tonks' antics. He went back to the window ledge, and resumed watching the scenery outside.

* * *

It was ten minutes til six o' clock, and Harry was casually strolling through Diagon Alley. He had taken on the look of an elderly, non-threatening man, this time around. He passed by Gringotts, chuckling softly at the turmoil he had caused for the Wizarding world, by assaulting the stronghold of their money-keepers. A stand off had been going on since the break-in, the Goblins not coming out, and not allowing anybody in. They blamed the Wizarding world for spawning the person responsible for the break-in, and were not happy in the least with it. Harry nearly burst into laughter as he saw Arthur Weasley trying to negotiate with them. He shook his head and stepped up to the Merlin statue at the corner of Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. He bowed his head towards it, and discreetly slipped his reply letter between the base of the statue and the wall of the neighboring building. He stepped away and continued on his apparent casual stroll of Diagon Alley, nobody paying him any mind.

He stopped a block away, and took a seat on a bench placed next to the street. He opened a copy of The Daily Prophet, and pretended to be reading it while watching the Merlin statue, waiting to see someone take the letter, and if possible, discover who it was.

At exactly six o' clock, Harry noticed a figure pause momentarily next to the statue, and summon the letter to his hand. The person's identity was kept from Harry, as he, Harry guessed it was a man by the size, was dressed in large robes, and a full-brimmed hat that was lowered over his face. Harry stood from his seat and strode as quick as his current form would allow to the corner. He reached the corner and was a block behind the stranger, who looked to be heading towards the Leaky Cauldron, and possibly Muggle London. He began closing the gap a bit as the stranger passed through the brick wall, and into the Leaky Cauldron. They were a mere fifty feet apart as the stranger left the Leaky Cauldron, and entered the streets of London. Harry slowed his pace once on the sidewalk, and dropped off a bit, so as not to arrouse suspicion. Harry was keeping him in site, and a good amount of people were between them. He was cut off from his prey by a bus that turned in front of him, just as he was about to cross the street. Harry made several rude gestures towards the driver, who honked in response. He rushed across the street, but it was too late; The man was nowhere to be seen.

Harry groaned in frustration and hobbled along the sidewalk, looking for any alleys the person could've ducked into. There were none. Sighing, he turned around and went back to the Leaky Cauldron, where he disapparated back to Lion Castle.

* * *

Harry had only returned to Lion Castle for a hand full of minutes, before disapparating back to the main land, to await the return letter, detailing their meeting in Glasgow. He was currently in a park, outside of York. His appearance was quite similar to his usual self, but his hair was slightly longer, and his chin was broadened a bit. Very slight changes, but more than enough to prevent anyone from recognizing him. He was sprawled out lazily across a bench, overlooking a small pond, wearing tight leather pants, and a t-shirt emblazoned with a 70's era British punk band, specifically the Sex Pistols. Depending on the type of muggle that walked by, he either recieved poorly concealed dirty looks, or appreciative smiles. The former being middle aged, respectable looking characters who no doubt remembered, without any amount of fondness, the havoc that said band wrecked upon the youth society of that era. The latter, were of course modern day fans of the genre, which included one group of fairly good looking women that caught his attention. Harry sent a smile their way, fully intending to be obvious that he was checking them out. They responded by blowing kisses, much to Harry's delight. His new plan of following them was interrupted with the arrival of an owl, bearing a letter for him. Harry cursed quietly, and hurriedly read through the letter.

_Harry,_

_I'm glad that you've decided to accept this 'invitation,' and as previously stated, here are the details of our meeting: Seven o' clock sharp, tomorrow evening. Visiting team locker room of Ibrox stadium. I trust that getting by security won't be a problem for you, and I hardly believe that I need to tell you to come alone._

_And before you start driving yourself insane, trying to remember where you've heard of this stadium, think back to Dean Thomas' football fascination. He more than likely mentioned it as being the home field of the Glasgow Rangers._

_Seven o' clock. Alone._

_A friend_

Harry smiled slightly at a memory of Dean Thomas, back during the Hogwarts days, thoroughly annoying many of his classmates with his constant prattling about various football teams from England and Scotland. He wondered if this meant that the person sending the letters went to Hogwarts as well. Harry was broke from his musings, as one of the women he'd meant to pursue before recieving the letter, sat down next to him on the bench. He swallowed his surprise, and looked at her. The first thing he noticed were extremely painful looking knee-high platform boots, with a smattering of spikes over them. His gaze went upward, taking in a small, rather tightly fitting skirt that reached her upper thigh while sitting down. Harry took pleasure in examining the patches sewn into the skirt, which appeared to amount to a recorded history of concerts she'd been to.

"If you would stop staring at my legs, maybe we can talk?" She mildly spoke, causing Harry to stop his examination of her skirt.

Harry forced down the urge to blush, and looked up, eye to eye with her. Before getting that high, he noticed she was wearing a midriff baring My Dying Bride shirt, and had a rather cutish belly button ring that he briefly imagined poking with his tongue. She was wearing a black choker, and her hair was piled ontop of her head, in a complicated fashion that Harry couldn't have hoped to comprehend. Several strands of raven black hair framed her face, which bore two violently purple eyes. Harry couldn't help but jump slightly in suprise as he noticed this feature, causing her to laugh.

"Contacts, don't worry." She smiled slightly, and extended her hand to him. "Clarissa."

"Harry," He responded, shaking her hand. It was warm and smooth to the touch, with a hint of metallic cold, which he noticed was caused by the wearing of a good deal of rings on her fingers. He examined her a bit less conspicuously, and saw that she had many piercings in her ears. She was, in Harry's opinion, a very attractive woman.

"So, are you type to just sit on a bench in a park, smile at pretty girls that walk by, but don't talk to them?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling slightly. Harry noticed in admiration, that it was a perfectly groomed eyebrow, and a very sexy smile.

"Why would I need to talk to you, when you sat down here instead and talked to me?" Harry countered with his own raised eyebrow and a smile.

"It's good manners." She replied.

Harry shrugged, keeping his smile. "So, are you the type to walk by guys sitting on benches in the park, then sit next to them and engage them in conversation when they smile at you?"

"Only when he's gorgeous, and wearing a shirt paying homage to my favorite band." She tapped him on the chest, letting her finger nail drag over him for a moment, before bringing it back.

Harry chuckled. "Well in that case..." He trailed off, looking her up and down, then turning a smirk to her.

Clarissa laughed, and was accompanied by a snort, and another set of laughter from behind the bench. She and Harry jerked their hands around, looking at the culprits. It was the other women from the group that Clarissa was a part of, before sitting to chat with Harry. They had sneaked up on the two, to eavesdrop.

"Harry," Clarissa said, smiling ruefully, "This is Megan," She waved her hand towards a reasonably tall blonde, that was dressed similarly to Clarissa. "And this is Katlyn," She jabbed her finger at the one that snorted, a brunette about the same height as Megan. Harry raised his eyebrows at her clothing, which seemed to be the antithesis of Clarissa and Megan's; Plaid skirt, sandals, a pink knit cotton shirt, and diamond earings. She carried a designer purse, and the aura of a princess.

Clarissa saw Harry's surprise at the appearance of the third member of her group, and laughed openly. She was joined by the other two. "Katlyn is our anchor. She makes sure that me and Megan behave ourselves. It's been that way since we were thirteen. She doesn't really enjoy a lot of the same things we do, so she's like our guardian angel. Best friends though." Clarissa, Megan, and Katlyn grinned.

Harry nodded, and smiled. "It's nice to meet you." He nodded at the other two.

"Likewise." Megan replied. Katlyn smiled sweetly and waved, but said nothing.

"So, Harry. We were getting ready to go out and have a few drinks, do you want to join us?" Clarissa asked, looking slightly hopeful at Harry.

Harry thought about it for a moment, and decided that it would be okay. "Sure."

Clarissa smiled, and they began walking along the path, towards the city.

* * *

It wasn't until eleven o' clock that Harry apparated back to Lion Castle, accompanied by a faint smell of alcohol, and a slip of paper containing Clarissa's home number, cell number, email address, and screen name. The Dining Hall was currently occupied by Harry's inner circle, who drew around him quickly, demanding to know where he was.

"Calm down," Harry said, "I was just out at a pub. No worries."

"Getting drunk?" Sirius asked, quickly looking interested.

"Sirius!" Hermione warned, then turned back to Harry, to be met with a raised hand.

"No, I wasn't getting drunk," Sirius looked slightly disappointed, and Harry continued, "I met a few girls, and went out with them for a few drinks. Although, only a couple drinks happened, the rest of the time was spent talking."

"Alright, Harry!" Sirius beamed, while Remus grinned. Hermione and Tonks looked scandalized, and Snape sneered.

"So how were they?" Sirius asked with a wink. Hermione gasped at the implication, and glared at Sirius. Tonks glared as well. Remus and Snape shook their heads, but watched Harry closely for his response.

"Nothing happened, Sirius." Harry replied, seeing the looks that Hermione and Tonks bore. They looked somewhat relieved, much to Harry's own relief. Sirius looked slightly crestfallen, and Harry leaned towards him, and whispered into his ear, "Not yet anyway. The best looking one gave me four different ways to contact her, whenever I want." He pulled back slightly and gave Sirius a barely noticeable wink, and got a grin in response. Hermione and Tonks both looked slightly suspicious at Harry's whispering, but since they couldn't hear what he said, they had no further reason to glare at him.

"So, did you find out who sent the letter?" Remus asked, breaking the remaining tension.

Harry shook his head, "No. Whoever it was, picked up the letter, and managed to elude me in muggle London. The reply I got, told me to meet him in a football stadium in Glasgow. Ibrox, it's called."

"Home of the Glasgow Rangers," Remus stated. "I attended a few of their games after the first war was over. Easy to forget things in that atmosphere." He quietly added. The others nodded in understanding.

"What time are you supposed to meet him?" Hermione asked.

"Seven in the evening."

The coming meeting was discussed for awhile longer, until Harry informed him that he was was tired, and was heading for sleep.

* * *

He lay in bed half an hour later, watching the fog drift over the ocean, blotting out the moonlight. He was absently thinking back to the battle aboard the galleon train, and his face off against Draco Malfoy. He longed to catch the slimey little git and make him suffer until armageddon came, and he put much effort into imagining how the fight would've ended had Malfoy not eluded him.

His fantasies were interrupted as a frantic banging on his door started, causing Harry to quickly get out of bed and throw on a robe. He walked quickly to his door, and opened it, seeing Remus there. "What is it?" Harry asked.

"Death Eaters are attacking Dublin. They burned an orphanage to the ground, with everyone inside it. They're currently laying seige to a hospital. Hundreds of innocent muggles are dying." Remus responded, fingering his wand. "The Order of the Phoenix has been called up in its entirety, so we're all port keying out of here, and then apparating there. We'll need help." He looked pleadingly at Harry.

Harry quickly nodded. He may not have cared much for the Order of the Phoenix, but muggle children and adults who'd done nothing to wrong him, didn't deserve to have their lives snuffed out on the whim of a psychotic. Harry summoned his helmet to him, which was on a shelf next to his bed. He put it on, and transfigured his robe into a thicker, flame resistant robe. He cast several charms on it to make it repel most minor curses, and to make it easier to move around in. Lastly, he summoned his sword to him, and attached it around his waist. He nodded that he was ready, and Remus took off down the stairs, with Harry on his heels.

They arrived back in the Dining Hall, to see everyone, minus Snape, fidgetting anxiously, ready to go. They looked relieved that Harry had decided to join them. "These are the coordinates, Harry. Professor Snape is already there, with Voldemort. Be careful that you don't hurt him." Hermione said, handing him a slip of parchment, containing the coordinates for where the attack was going on. Harry looked at them and memorized them, getting ready to disapparate.

"None of you know who I am, or that I'm there. I'll apparate behind the Death Eater lines, and destroy them from there," Harry seemed to think a moment, then removed his helmet, and shortened his hair. He styled it so that his lightning bolt scar was visible to the world, and he nodded grimly, in satisfaction. "I think it's time that Voldemort learned that I'm still alive." With that, he disapparated to Dublin, quickly followed by the rest of his inner circle.

* * *

Harry arrived to a scene of carnage. He was in a burnt out shell of a room, which he quickly recognized as a waiting room from a hospital. He crept forward to the doors, where he saw a dozen or so Death Eaters bunkered below a low wall, overlooking a parking lot. Every couple seconds, several of them would raise up and fire curses towards the parking lot below. Fire was burning everywhere, and smoke filled Harry's nostrils. Screams came from every direction, and shouts of hexes and curses were continuously heard. Harry slowly poked his head through the door, being sure to not attract any attention, and saw a building burning furiously across the street. It was the orphanage, and Harry's blood boiled in rage. He stepped back away from the doors, and looked around the waiting room he had apparated into. His eyes narrowed when he noticed a very large, and very heavy looking receptionist's desk against the far wall. He raised his arm to it, and summoned it with all the power he could muster. It ripped away from the wall, and came flying towards him, several hundred pounds of solid mahogany. He pulled at it with even more power, and it sped up. He directed it past him, and crashed it through the doorway, shattering the frames and walls like glass, and causing the Death Eaters to jerk around in surprise.

Harry could only imagine the fear that showed on their faces as they saw what was coming towards them, but it would've only lasted a second, as the desk slammed into the middle of their group, and crashed through the wall, falling to the parking lot below. Six Death Eaters were caught in the path of the desk, and their bones were shattered to dust between it and the wall. Harry menacingly stepped out of the remains of the doors, and drew his sword. The remaining Death Eaters grouped together with their wands raised, practically cowering in fear.

One of them noticed the scar on Harry's forehead, and stammered in disbelief, "Harry P-P-Potter!" He fainted dead away, and Harry strode forward, raising his sword above his head. The Death Eaters frozen in shock, and Harry leaped into the midst of them, violently swinging his sword in a clockwise motion over his head. He decapitated three of them, before the remaining ones reacted, ducking to the ground and rolling away. They jumped to their feet and began firing curses at him, which he dodged and blocked with his sword. He pounced towards one Death Eater that had his back to the wall, and ran him through the chest with his blade. Harry stabbed with such force, that the blade penetrated through the stone wall, pinning the Death Eater there.

Harry let go of the sword, and wandlessly cast the reductor curse at the closer of the two Death Eaters. He was unable to dodge, and the curse hit him full in the chest, exploding through his clothing, skin, and bones, spraying blood and flesh everywhere. The corpse flew over the wall, and into the parking lot that was filled with Aurors. Harry turned to the last remaining Death Eater, and casually moved his head to the side as the killing curse was hurtled at him. Harry smiled dangerously, and summoned the person to him, who screamed in surprise. Harry sidestepped just as he was about to fly into him, and wrapped his arms around the neck and head of the Death Eater. Harry snapped his neck, and let the body fall to the ground. He stepped back to the Death Eater who was desperately holding onto life, while the sword was impaled through his chest. Harry removed the Death Eater's mask, revealing it to be a Ravenclaw that Harry vaguely recognized from Hogwarts, but the name he couldn't remember. He placed his hand on the pommel of the sword, and gave it a twist, making the person scream in agony. Harry pulled the sword out, with a little bit of effort, and let the person drop to the ground. Harry finished him off by thrusting the sword downward through the back of his head.

Harry jogged through the smoke filled hallways of the hospital, stepping over bodies of the dead. If he hadn't spent the past eight years in Azkaban, witnessing the countless atrocities that Voldemort committed, he might've been sick at the sight of several dozen dead muggles, with blood soaking the walls and floor like a flood that had risen from the depths of hell. He had come across, and killed several more Death Eaters, but he couldn't seem to find a good concentration of them. Several times he had looked out a window, to see the Auror's below tryign to mount an attack, and get inside the hospital. Each time, curses rained down on them from above like rain. Harry was currently on his way to those upper floors, hoping to find several Death Eaters he could wipe out with a single curse. The upper floors were the only source of screams now, and Harry made haste to get there. He looked out a nearby window, looking to see where the curses were coming from. He noticed one window that nothnig was being fired from, and apparated up to it. He entered to find the room occupied only by the burnt and bloody corpse of a young man, who was still in his bed.

Harry knew that Death Eaters were in the next room, and pointed his sword to the wall seperating them. "Reducto," He muttered. The blade glowed as magic flowed through it, firing out the end and to the wall. There was a loud explosion, and a wide hole was there now in its place. Harry jumped through it, and faced the surprised Death Eaters. There were two of them. He cursed at not having found more, and took his anger out on the Death Eater that was closest to him. He waved his hand in a slicing motion, and the same red light that slashed through Theodore Nott on the galleon train, sliced through its current target. The remaining Death Eater showed some initiative and sensibility, by transfiguring a broken table leg into a long sword. He raised it, and charged at Harry, swinging powerfully. Harry parried the blow to the side, and tripped the Death Eater as his momentum carried him past. He pounced at the man before he could get back to his feet, and stabbed him through his heart.

Harry left the room, and saw a group of Death Eaters running down the hall, and into a room on the opposite side of the hallway. Harry smiled in anticipation, and ran to the door that had entered. He paused outside of it, drew a deep breath, and charged through the door, breaking it open. He was met with the sight of twenty Death Eaters circled around a meeting table, listening to orders coming from an obvious high ranking member of Voldemort's forces. They all spun to face him as came through the door, and Harry grinned maniacally.

"Potter!" The leader spat, recognizing him.

Harry recognized the voice, and quickly placed a name to it. "Lucius." He drawled out, in a mocking imitation of the traditional Malfoy tone.

"So you did survive Azkaban...this is very convienent, for the Dark Lord was most upset at not being able to kill you himself. Now he still has that option." Lucius Malfoy sneered out.

Harry ignored him, and spoke. "I want you to take a message back to your dear old master, Lucius. Tell him that I'm back, and that I want to bathe in his blood."

Lucius laughed, "Really, Potter. I think you take your abilities to be much stronger than what they are. You're outnumbered twenty to one."

"I've already killed nineteen of your Death Eaters on the way up here." Harry responded. "Now, Lucius. I want you to witness this." Harry threw his hands out toward Lucius, and cast a thick, magical bubble around him. Lucius pounded against it, but to no avail. Most of the Death Eaters in the room took that is their cue to attack Harry, while the rest tried to free Lucius from the bubble. Harry drew a magical shield around himself, and flipped his sword around, so that it was pointing down to the floor. He closed his eyes and began chanting softly, seemingly growing unaware of the world outside of the shield. Power began building around him, drawing towards him like a black hole. One by one, the Death Eaters stopped attacking, and watched nervously as Harry continued summoning magical energy to him. In all, five seconds had past, then Harry's hands glowed as bright as the sun, causing everyone that was looking, to jerk their heads away in pain. Harry slammed the blade of his sword into the floor, and a thick rushing sound was heard through that part of the building, as white hot flames shot up from the floor, and engulfed everyone in the room.

The inferno lasted only a second, but it was time enough to turn every unprotected body to ash, as well as every bit of furniture in the room, the walls, and the ceiling. The floor was scorched, but the magic involved prevented it from being harmed too much. Harry and Lucius were the only ones left alive in the room. Harry lowered his shield, and the bubble surrounding Lucius. He could still feel the heat from the inferno, causing him to break into a light sweat. "Do you see what I'm capable of, Lucius?" Harry asked, while grinning.

Lucius scowled, only partly able to hide his fear, and touched his hand to the Dark Mark on his arm, and whispered a few words. "The Dark Lord will not find trouble in you, Potter. He will dispatch of you with ease."

"Remember my message, Lucius." Harry stated.

Lucius Malfoy sneered, and disapparated. Harry heard similar pops from around the building, and took it to mean that the rest of the Death Eaters had retreated. Harry likewise apparated away, and back to Lion Castle, allowing the Aurors to finish up whatever might remain as opposition.

* * *

Harry and the rest of his inner circle sat around a table in the Dining Hall the following morning. They each held a steaming mug of coffee in their hands. Severus had just been allowed leave from Voldemort's stronghold, and went immediately to Lion Castle. The Order of the Phoenix members had been released from their meeting with Dumbledore a couple hours previous, so they had been up discussing with Harry the events of the night.

"The Dark Lord wasn't very pleased that you killed thirty-eight of his minions, Potter. That put a rather sizeable dent in one of his stronger companies. He punished Lucius Malfoy with the Cruciatus curse for several minutes, for being the one to deliver your message." Severus spoke.

"So, Malfoy did deliver the message, then?" Harry asked.

"Yes. It caused quite a stir with everyone that heard it. There were several people I heard that were discussing defecting away from the Dark Lord, to escape your wrath." Severus replied, chuckling.

Harry grinned. It wasn't what he had planned to happen, but he was happy with it nonetheless. "Excellent. Now, as much as I wish to remain discussing these issues, I need to sleep, so that I can be on my toes for the meeting this evening."

The rest of the table nodded, bidding him a good sleep, as he used some excess magical energy to float up the sets of stairs to his chambers.

* * *

Harry awoke at five thirty, feeling refreshed. He threw on a loose pair of pants and a pair of sandals, then walked down to the dining hall. He was met with an appreciative whistle from Tonks, who was the only one there.

"Love the body, Harry. Especially the tattoos." She said with a wink.

Harry smiled in response. "Love your body as well, especially without the clothes."

Tonks laughed, and Harry looked her over. She was currently a brunette knock out, standing about five feet, seven inches tall. She had a thin build, with salivating curves in the most fantastic places. Her eyes were green, but not vibrant like Harry's.

"Well, Harry. I think we should carry on from where we left off, yesterday." She said, morphing her appearance back to what she called, the 'anime princess' look. But instead of the sundress, she was wearing a white blouse and a thigh length skirt.

Harry grinned, "I agree."

Tonks stepped forward to Harry, to the point that she had to crane her neck back to look up at him. Harry placed his hands on her hips, and slowly lowered his head to hers, watching her lips in anticipation. Softly, they made contact, and Tonks wrapped her arms around his neck. She moved upwards ever so slightly, and gently flicked her tongue over his bottom lip. He somewhat brought his own tongue out, and counter-flicked her lip, starting a battle between the two. They danced over each other, each trying to gain access to the other's mouth, before finally settling into a rythmic, massaging pace. Harry's hands roamed around to the small of her back, and Tonks' trailed her right hand down his chest, scraping her finger nails over his skin, bringing out an involuntary shudder from him. She tangled her other hand in his hair, and he slipped his hands under the hem of her blouse, and ran his fingers over her skin, admiring the smooth feel of her, and her subtle, yet toned muscles. Tonks backed her head away slightly and took his bottom lip between her teeth, biting down and sucking. Harry opened his eyes and the tingling sensation, and saw her watching him closely. He met her eyes, and they stared into one another, in a near trance.

"Ahem." The sound of doom was followed by a slight cough, causing Harry and Tonks to jump apart. Tonks straightened her shirt, and Harry sent a powerful blast of air at the intruder.

Sirius was hit by the blast, and was blown backwards several feet. He never lost his grin, and rose back to his feet. "I knew it!" He exclaimed.

"_Damn_ it, Sirius!" Harry wailed, while glaring at his godfather.

"Yes, Sirius. Go the fuck away, you're interrupting." Tonks snarled.

Sirius merely grinned. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I saw it coming the day you first attacked her in Hermione's apartment, Harry!"

Harry scowled.

"Now the moment's ruined!" Tonks cried, looking ready to hit Sirius for his infraction.

Sirius seemed to realize that he was risking quite a bit of physical harm by remaining there after interrupting, and made to leave. "Right, anyway. I just came by to remind you to wear armor to your meeting tonight, Harry. No telling if it might be a trap. Apparate away if anything goes wrong, and be careful." That said, he portkeyed back out.

Harry sighed, and turned to Tonks. "Well...that was good while it lasted."

Tonks smiled, "Yes it was. Continue?"

Harry frowned and shook his head slowly, "Not yet. I really need to get ready for the meeting. I need to find some armor and cast some special encantations over it, and that will take time. But I'd love to, after returning."

Tonks nodded, "Very well. Do you want any help?"

"I don't need any, but you can keep me company while I'm down there."

Together, they marched down to Harry's vault, chatting light heartedly all the way.

It didn't take long for Harry to find something that he felt was comfortable, and not entirely conspicuous. It was finely crafted chainmail, that had size adjusting charms to allow it to fit to the wearer's specifications. Half an hour was spent afterwards charming it and modifying it to be as safe as could be.

* * *

Finally, at around six thirty, Harry deemed that it was time to depart. He pulled the armor on over his head, and smiled as he felt the magical aura it possessed. He could feel his senses sharpen, and felt an extra reserve of adrenalin form in his head. He put on a heavy dragon hide cloak over the chainmail, then pulled on dragon hide boots and gloves, making him impervious to nearly everything but the killing curse, except for his face, which remained unarmored. Harry gave Tonks a quick kiss, and and whispered a farewell to her, then disapparated up to his bed chambers, and donned his helmet. He pulled the hood of his cloak over the helmet, then attached his belt and sword to his waist. Harry went over his mental checklist, assuring himself that he was ready for anything that could be thrown at him. Once assured, he disapparated.

Harry apparated into a deserted alley of Glasgow, near Ibrox Stadium. He quickly cast an invisibility charm over himself, and floated over traffic to the stadium. The parking lot was nearly empty, making Harry sigh in relief. Now he wouldn't have to expend a whole lot of energy on sneaking. He lowered himself to the ground near one of the back entrances of the stadium, and magically unlocked the door. He quietly edged in, and made his way down the hallway, following signs directing to the locker rooms. It didn't take him long to find the visitor's locker room, and he went back to the nearest corner and crouched at it, watching the door, and laying in wait for seven o' clock.

Twenty minutes passed, and nobody went into the room. Harry frowned, and check his watch, which he had charmed to be seen by him while invisible, to confirm the time. It was six fifty-nine, time to go in. Harry took of the invisibility charm, and walked down the hall, back to the door. He kept an eye on his watch, and exactly when it hit seven o' clock, he opened the locker room door, and walked in. The first thing that caught his attention was a tall, hooded figure wearing a completely concealing cloak. Harry moved his hand to the pommel of his sword, ready to draw at the first sign of hostilities.

"Harry Potter." The cloaked figure stated, more than asked.

"Yes." Harry confirmed, tightening his grip on the pommel.

"We have much to discuss." The figure continued.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

The figure stood before Harry, and lowered the hood of his robes, grinning happily at him.

For the first time in quite awhile, Harry was truly shocked. "Neville?" He gasped.

* * *

Booyah! Bet you didn't see that coming, eh, ya hizmos?

I credit that ending to skittles-07. Without that review, I never would've made the mystery person Neville. :P

In fact, I was kind of at a loss, as to who it was going to be...was probably going to settle with an OC, but...Neville was a much better idea. You have my thanks.

Anyway...longest chapter I've written, nearly 6300 words, counting author notes.


	10. Chapter 10

As always, I own none of this but the plot, and my original characters. JK Rowling owns the rest.

ahem my...apologies for the delay. Got a new computer, and was so excited about it...I basically just completely forgot about writing. My excuse is: Stuck with a shitty computer for the past 4 years, and finally get a new one, so weeeeeeeeeee. I also started MUDing again…if anybody that reads this MUDs, you'll know how addictive it is, and hopefully further understand the delays in my writing. :P

Heh. I have a lot of reviews, and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Especially now that it's getting cold. Stupid winter. Aside from potential snowboarding. A slight warning: This chapter is very dialogue heavy, with no action, and hardly anything else. I'm sure you can imagine why. If you can't, then you might have a problem imagining things.

* * *

"Hello, Harry. It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Neville said, smiling warmly. 

"Neville...it was you?" Harry asked, still feeling shocked from the discovery.

"Yes it was." Neville clapped Harry on the shoulder, "How about to go somewhere a bit more secure to talk. As I'm sure you know by now, my life would be in jeopardy if spotted with you, and...to put it simply, your life has always been in jeopardy. So no need for anything dumb to happen right now."

Harry nodded. "Where should we go then?"

"My flat is being watched, otherwise we could go there. Where have you been hiding since the break-out?"

Harry, suddenly cautious of a trap, cut himself off from immediately answering. "Just...a little shack out in the middle of nowhere."

Neville gave Harry an odd look, "I'm not your enemy. Nor am I being coerced into working against you. If you're willing, I'm your ally."

"How do I know that?" Harry asked.

"Because you do. Listen to your mind. It's a powerful thing, if you open yourself up to it." Neville replied.

Harry studied Neville closely, and concentrated on opening his mind, without lowering his defenses to a legilimency attack. He was surprised to feel complete trust and loyalty radiating from Neville. Neville, as if sensing what Harry felt, nodded.

"Everybody has a...sixth sense, I guess you can call it. It's normally only used by magical folk, but even they have trouble finding it, let alone honing it. Some would call it empathy, the...less versed, and by that, I mean idiots, call it mind reading." Neville cut off Harry's pending question, before he could open his mouth. "Yes, it's a form of occlumency and legilimency. The more skilled you are at them, the easier you will pick up empathy. Since you've mastered the two, empathy comes natural to you. You just have to open your mind to it."

"How do you know that I've mastered occlumency and legilimency?" Harry asked, still feeling slightly suspicious, regardless of the feelings that he picked up with his newly discovered empathic skills.

"Just because I'm not in the Order of the Lion, doesn't mean I don't know what's going on there," Neville responded. "Even in the inner circle. Though I will admit, I've been blind to them since you presumably moved them into your hide out. You do indeed have one hell of a warding system around this so called 'shack.'"

Harry smiled evasively.

"Well, shall we get going?" Neville asked.

Harry nodded, and took a small booklet from his robes. He turned it into a portkey, and held it out to Neville. Neville took hold out of it, and they were transported into a small, empty room of Lion Castle.

Harry conjured a table and a set of chairs, and waved Neville to sit down. He then took most of his body armor off, and sat down as well. "Start from the beginning, Neville."

Neville nodded, and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "Gryffindor house had sunk into the doldrums after you were arrested. Slytherine took every advantage they could to make us feel worse, and I'm sad to admit, it worked. The Defense Association was disbanded, because most of the members thought that you had been secretly training them to become your henchmen when you rose to power and assumed the title of Dark Lord. It was a whole big mess; Nearly everyone there thought you were an insane criminal, taking after your godfather. The only ones that would argue your case were Hermione and Dean. Ginny had Dean shut up by the end of the year, basically telling him that if he thought her brother was a liar, then it was over between them. I was with Hermione and Dean, but I couldn't work up the nerve to be public about it. I'm ashamed about it now, but at the same time…it shapes our current situation, so I have reason to believe that it was twisted and shaped by forces beyond our control, and ultimately, our comprehension."

Neville paused, and reached into his pocket, pulling out several rolls of parchment. He spread them across the table, and placed sticking charms on them so they would stay in place.

"How much did Dumbledore tell you, about why Voldemort was attacking your mind back in fifth year? Sending you images of a hallway lined with doors."

"Nothing. I hardly spoke with Dumbledore at all, and nothing was brought up about that."

Neville sighed. "He has no idea the pain that you could've gone through, due to his inaction."

"But you do?" Harry asked.

"I have a far better idea than he does. Now, continuing on. After the drama started settling down at Hogwarts, the NEWTs arrived. I placed very well in them, so well in fact, that I exceeded everyone's expectations, and shocked them all. I could feel something in me while I was being tested, something beyond my control, directing my answers and responses. My brain was filled with the required knowledge and experience to ace the NEWTs, and place at the top of the class. Ahead of even Hermione, much to her displeasure, which she did remarkably well to hide, I believe. I was recruited into the Ministry of Magic, and after year or so, rose quickly through the ranks. My second year in, I was accepted into the Unspeakable training program, which I got through with flying colors. I was placed on a research team in the Department of Mysteries. Our work was so top secret, that even the Minister of Magic had no knowledge of it, and was denied access to any information regarding it. Most people in the Ministry don't even know we exist, and everybody that knew us before we went in, thinks we've gone missing. That's how top secret it is. The research going on, was conducted with the aid of the brightest wizards and witches that the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa had to offer."

"What were you working on?" Harry asked.

Neville rubbed his forehead wearily, and Harry noticed that it was creased far too much for his age. "We worked on a lot of things, all leading to where we are now. We put research into necromancy and sorcery, elemental magic and summoning. Our African friends brought with them, knowledge and independent research done into their cultures' ceremonial and ritual magic, and our American friends brought in several experts on the voodoo magic of the Caribbean, as well as the elemental and shape shifting magic of the Native Americans. We studied and researched all of the known magic in the world, trying to find a common denominator; One thing that brought them all together. We couldn't find anything linking them. The styles were different, the powers were different, the ways the powers were used was different. The magic itself had no relation to one another. After looking into them, using test subjects, inventing new tools and methods to diagnose the magic, we finally discovered that we were wrong all along in our assumption that we drew power from nature, from life, from earth. Because we don't, we discovered that magic does not exist on its own, on this earth, or any other planets in this dimension. We draw magic from the ethereal realms. Each of our bodies are portals for that magic to get through. The stronger the witch or wizard, the larger portals he or she has for magical energy to be pumped through."

Neville trailed off, figuring that he reached a good stopping point. "Can we get some tea or coffee, before continuing?"

Harry nodded and rose from his chair. He motioned for Neville to stay, as he made to stand up as well. Harry left the room, and magically sealed the door behind him, and made his way to the kitchens. He was surprised to see Tonks sitting at a table, flipping through a magazine. With the revelation of Neville, he had completely forgotten about her being there.

"Harry, you're back!" She exclaimed, standing from her chair. She crossed the room to him, looking him over as she walked. "Did everything go okay? Who was it?"

Harry, having recovered from his surprise, gawked at her. She had evidently become bored while he was gone, and took the time to create a whole new radical look for herself. Currently, her hair was cut into short spikes, and was lime green on one side, hot pink on the other, and neon purple on top. She wore a shredded, tight pair of khaki pants, grungy boots, and gray hoodie covered in patches. Her lipstick was purple, as was her eye shadow. "Tonks…what the hell?"

Tonks looked confused, but quickly realized what Harry meant. "Oh, I got bored after you left. I don't have to be into work until tonight, so I decided to just hang around here. I bought this magazine yesterday, and started reading it. It has a fun article on the underground punk scene of urban America and Europe. I decided to play with the looks, see if they worked for me. What do you think?"

Harry smiled half heartedly and scratched his head. "Well…it's the hair. Just use a single color."

"Gotcha." Tonks quickly fixed it, returning to her quasi-normal pink hair. "So, you didn't answer me before."

"It went well. Is still going, actually. The mystery person was Neville Longbottom."

Tonks' mouth dropped open in surprise, "Neville? He went missing four years ago! We thought he was grabbed by Voldemort, due to his parents."

"He was recruited into a secret research team in the Ministry, with top wizards and witches from around the world. I'll say more when I know more." Harry replied. He resumed his walk to the kitchens, with Tonks following behind him.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Getting tea."

"You really should look into getting a house elf. This place is far too big to be doing everything yourself." Tonks chirped.

"After seeing Sirius' house elf from Grimmauld Place, I never want to see one again." Harry grumbled.

"Kreacher wasn't right in the head," Tonks agreed. "But don't let it affect your feelings towards house elves in general. You liked Dobby well enough, didn't you?"

Harry glanced at Tonks, "Well, yes. Dobby was fine."

"Excellent. I believe he will still have hold his loyalty to you, and as such, I will see about bringing him here." Tonks beamed at the idea and practically skipped back away to her portkey, which was left at the table.

Harry smiled and shook his head, and resumed his quest for tea.

Several minutes later, Harry returned to the room, to see that Neville hadn't moved. He set the tray down on the table, on it was a tea pot, and two tea cups. Harry poured the tea, and handed a cup to Neville. He declined pouring himself any at the moment, and returned to his seat.

Neville sipped at the tea, nodding slightly in approval. "Thank you, Harry. Now, I believe I can continue." Neville unstuck one of the rolls of parchments from the table, and pushed it to Harry. Harry looked at it, and saw a good deal of diagrams and formulae. Loads of arithmancy garbage that he couldn't begin to understand, and a lot of technical speech that might as well have been ancient Greek. "As you can see," Neville continued, "We spent a good deal of effort researching the ethereal realms, trying to figure where in our world, they factor in. There has to be something aside from magic connecting us to them. To make a very long story short…I did some controversial summoning spells, enlightened my mind, and did a bit of astral projection. Not all at once, mind you, but over a length of time. I met some interesting characters, spirits if you will, and had some interesting conversations. Their leads put me on the path of something far greater than I had privately imagined possible. I branched off from the main group's work, and started doing my own research. Sadly, in the case of my pride, but fortunately for you, they decided to follow me and assist in my research. I tested some theories, and discovered a book. I believe you know the book I'm speaking of." Neville trailed off, looking at Harry.

Harry nodded in understanding, and tried to piece together on his own, where Neville was going.

"I made contact with some of the knowledge and wisdom gods on my own, and learned a good deal about the universe and its workings. After that, I decided to send the book on to you, so you could finally get out of that rat hole, and back where you belong."

"And where is that?" Harry asked.

Neville's reply was simple. "Leading the light."

"I don't get it, Neville. Why is that where I belong?" Harry asked.

"Because, Harry. We have no control over our destinies, they're shaped before we're even born, and we're powerless to escape them. Some people have simple destinies; To live peaceful lives, bear and a raise a child who will eventually become important…so on and so forth. Others have far more important destinies. You're one of them. Your future was shaped and decided upon before you were born, just like everyone else. But you were stuck with an important destiny, one that you still carry with you. I can't reveal what it is yet, as it's not for me to tell you. The important thing to note is that we're just simple creatures, with no importance to the universe. Everyone here is terrified of Voldemort, as well they should be. He can be the death to every living creature on this planet, but he would be of no consequence in the overall scheme of things. On the radars of the ethereal realms, he'd barely be a tiny, insignificant smudge on a large table cloth. A very minor inconvenience, and easily fixable. The only role we have in existence, is that of pawns. We're pawns in a war that we can't even fathom."

"What are you saying, Neville?" Harry asked, a cold feeling settling into the pit of his stomach.

"For eternity, the gods have been at war with another. The so called light faction against the so called dark faction. They battle one another in the ethereal realms. But the war stopped millennia ago. An uneasy peace was achieved, after several gods from each side were vanquished and caused haywire in the realms. For all their wisdom and knowledge, they didn't seem to understand the effects of a god being destroyed. The realms shifted and tore, dimensions blended together and reality was obscured by a dark fog. The surviving gods felt their comrades' deaths as well. A surge of mystical power, not unlike a lightning storm, swept through the realms, and engulfed the survivors. Some powers were drained, some were set loose in other, unrecognizable dimensions, lost from their home, and a variety of other unforeseen problems arose. After all of this had calmed down, the gods met in the great hall of the One, and decided upon a peace. Nobody wanted to become victors in a war that, with the destruction of their enemies, would more than likely destroy the fabric of the universe, and all realities within, itself. So now they let out their frustrations of not being able to battle each other, by using us to battle ourselves. A prod in this direction, a provoked thought over there, and you have a world war on your hands. Good versus evil, light versus dark. It's all controlled by Them. It's in our nature to destroy ourselves, true, but it takes a good nudge in the back to move in that direction." Neville took a long drink from his tea, and pulled a metallic case from the inside of his cloak. He opened the case, and removed a cigarette from it. Harry declined an offer for one as well, and Neville took his time lighting it. "They're from Indonesia. Clove cigarettes, very nice taste. One of the Asian members on the research team brought them with her, had me hooked within a month." He returned the case to his cloak, and took a long drag.

Harry watched Neville smoke, and patiently waited for the story to continue. He'd decided that he needed to have another chat with Naylajaratim, and quickly.

"Right then," Neville conjured an ash tray and flicked ashes into it. "I feel that I should probably clear up a question that will soon be popping into your head, if it hasn't already. Yes, you have free will, up to the point that your destiny starts to run its course." Neville took another long drag, and looked hard at Harry. "A great war among magical kind is coming, Harry. I know it, you know it. Believe it when I say that Dumbledore and Voldemort know it. We can feel it in our bones. There's no avoiding it, the path has already been laid out. The question that's going to secure the victory or defeat for you and your forces, is how prepared are you?"

"I'm prepared." Harry stated.

"Are you indeed?" Neville asked, with a humorless smile. "You've been off the island for four days, and you're already prepared for war? You have the weaponry, the armor, the provisions, the materials, the industrial support, the intelligence and reconnaissance base, the soldiers themselves?"

Harry remained silent for a few moments, contemplating with himself, before slowly answering. "I have the materials; I found in the Potter and Black vaults, several tons of metal and bronze bars, as well as a large forge. Also in those vaults, were many racks of weapons and armor. Provisions are easily attainable, and I have reliable intelligence sources on all sides of the line. It's true that I'm lacking in soldiers, but I'm working with Hermione on a campaign to solve those needs."

Neville nodded, "You're better off than I expected, even though I knew that you had the resources of your family vaults. But we both know that it's not enough. You may get the soldiers, but you need help with materials. You can have all the necessary supplies to arm and gear an army, but you can't do that without competent people producing them. Wizard kind is running short on blacksmiths, and muggles lack the obviously needed magic to imbue their work. You need the Dwarves of the Mountain Kingdom. They are master craftsmen, and hold their entire life meaning in their ceremonial hammer."

"How can I get in touch with them?" Harry immediately asked.

"I can assist you in that area, if you give me a couple days." Neville responded. "Their kingdom is in the heart of Ural Mountains of Russia, and very hard to get to. They've been separated from human contact since the dark ages. It is a little known fact, that they equipped the armies of Atlantis during their quest to bring the world into civility. They also had a large part in the general metalwork of the Roman Empire. It was their final trip into human civilization, and they vowed never to return when the Empire fell, and their works of beauty were destroyed or corrupted."

"You have as much time as you need." Harry couldn't help but look pleased, at the potential allies he could gain.

"Excellent. Now, I fear that I must be going. The research group is having a meeting soon, that I must partake in." Neville put out his cigarette, and gathered the rolls of parchment from the table, placing them back in his cloak.

Harry nodded and crafted a one time portkey for Neville's use. They shook hands, and Neville took the portkey.

"Oh, one thing, Neville." Harry began.

"Yes?" Neville asked, stopping the incantation on his lips to activate the portkey.

"Why are you on my side?" Harry asked.

"It's my destiny." Neville stated.

"And if it wasn't your destiny, would you still be on my side?" Harry looked closely at Neville.

Neville paused, then met Harry's gaze. "Yes. I would."

Harry smiled, and shook Neville's hand again. "Thanks, Neville. It means a lot. I will give you a way to get in touch with me, by tomorrow. It is my wish to induct you into the Order immediately, but I will need to speak to the Inner Council first, and make sure all bases are covered."

Neville seemed unsure, and looked at the table. "I'd rather not be inducted into your Order. I would like to, if circumstances were different, but as they are…I feel that I can contribute more to you, if there are no possible ties between us, no matter how hard it would be to discern them."

Harry nodded in understanding. "Well, if you ever change your mind, there's a spot open for you."

Neville nodded, and portkeyed away.

Harry walked out of the room, hands clasped behind his back, pondering Neville's words. A good deal of them disturbed Harry to no end, and had him asking himself a lot of questions. He made his way down to the vaults, and charmed all weaponry and armor to float back up to the dining hall, and stack neatly in organized rows for him to categorize later on. He then shrunk down the large forge, and floated it up to an empty room in the upper dungeon level. The room was very large: about twenty meters wide, twenty meters long, and four meters between floor and ceiling. Harry next floated up a stack each of metal and bronze, arranging them carefully next to the forge. He walked up to the dining hall, and stood in the middle of the stacks of weapons and armor. Several advanced charms later, they were all separated and sorted onto racks again. He took made a rough estimate of having a hundred some swords of various types, two dozen axes of various types, and a hand full of spears and axes left over from the Vikings. He counted six full sets of plate mail armor, plus another dozen studded leather vests. Several pairs of gauntlets and boots were aligned under the armor, and above them, no less than twenty helms of various types and sizes sat. Overall, the equipment situation was pretty good, but needed a great deal of additions, which would hopefully be provided by the Dwarves.

Harry lay in bed that night, thinking. He didn't try to sleep, just laid there, staring at the ceiling with his hands linked behind his head. He thought of a good many things; The war; Azkaban; His family and friends; Neville; Destinies; And Tonks. Harry thought of Tonks more than the other topics, and with good reason. Tonks was far better looking than Neville, far more entertaining than Azkaban, far closer to him than a destiny or a war, and was quickly growing to be one of his favorite people in the list of family and friends. Emphasis on the friends part, as Harry was quite sure that he didn't want to be romantically attached to anyone at the moment. He was sure that it would become news, and she would be an even greater target than before, and he didn't want that to happen. Things would be risky enough for her as they were, without the added burden as being known as Harry Potter's girlfriend.

As if she had heard him thinking about her, Tonks knocked on Harry's door. Harry called, "Come in," And Tonks walked in. She had raven black hair, and tanned skin, along with black eyes. She was short again, but not too much. Just perfect, in Harry's mind.

"Hey, Harry. Did I wake you?" She asked quietly.

"No, I was just thinking. Have a seat." Harry sat up on his bed, and drew on a shirt. Tonks sat at the edge of his bed, and watched him. "I'm actually glad you're here, I was just thinking of you."

Tonks smiled, and laid back, across Harry's legs, and rolled onto her side to keep watching him. "What about?"

"Well. About earlier, when we kissed. I don't think a relationship would be the greatest idea right now, for either of us. I would love to have one with you at a later time, but right now…it's not the best time." Harry looked at her carefully, watching for any sign of hurt feelings or anger. What he saw, surprised him. It was actually slight happiness.

"I agree. I would like one as well, but I agree that it's not the right time. You need time to readjust to your life, and, at the risk of sounding incredibly selfish, I frankly do not wish to become an even bigger target to all of your enemies, because news will get out that we're dating." Tonks said quietly, voicing Harry's same concerns. "However…"

Harry cut her off with a raised hand, "However," He smirked, "That doesn't mean we can't have a secret life."

Tonks grinned knowingly, and pulled herself up to sit next to him. "Exactly. And as much as I'd love to experiment with the secret life, I'm rather tired, and would like to sleep. So…if you don't mind, you have a very large and comfortable bed." She left the hint hanging in the air, and Harry seized it.

"Sleep well. But don't grope me. I might become unstable and do something rash." He winked and laid his head back down on the pillow.

Tonks mock glared at him, before stealing one of his pillows for her own use, and sliding under the covers next to him. "Goodnight, Harry."

"Goodnight, Tonks."

* * *

And there you have it. Chapter 10. I must say, I greatly enjoy the way things are moving so far. The further I progress with this fic, the more fun I have writing it. Now…I'm going to go out on a limb here, and post my aim screen name. You know, in case anyone would like to instant message me with their love, similar to this example: "Oh my god, you are the greatest ever and I want to hump your leg!" 

That is, of course, just an example. :P

But still, feel free to contact me. It'll make me feel good about myself, and boost my ego. Plus, if you're nice, you might be able to see where the plot is going in the future….oooooh….what a deal! :P

Ministryisadeity.

P.S. I'm still looking for a beta reader...so if anybody out that that has a good grasp on the English language, and grammar, feel free to shriek, "I want to be your beta reader!!!"


	11. Chapter 11

I apologize profusely for the delay in getting this out. It took way too damn long, and I scold myself greatly for it. It seems that I forgot about this thing for a long time, and lost the will to write for another period of time. But that will is back, I believe, as I finished writing this chapter today. It's not as long as I initially wanted it to be, but it'll do for the time being. If you instant messaged me to be my beta reader, which a few of you did, I'm sorry that I've dropped out of contact with you. If you'd like to retake that position, you are more than welcome to. My screen name on aimis ministryisadeity.

Now for the chapter.

The clanking sound of metal on metal was music to Harry's ears, after the literal silence that had encompassed the room since it was first stocked. The Dwarven King had sent an expeditionary team of blacksmiths along with Neville on his return to Lion Castle, a week previous. Apparently, he hadn't needed much convincing to join the cause, and was eager to supply aid as quickly as possible. The full muster of the Dwarven contingent were still preparing for departure in their kingdom under the Ural Mountains, causing much stress to Harry in the meantime, as he wondered where they were going to live. If he had to have everyone in the Order of the Lion, plus their immediate families, move into the castle for their protection, then that wasn't going to leave much room for a company of Dwarves.

A stack of newly crafted axe-heads were resting on a long rack, waiting to be attached to a handle, and charmed. Harry ran a finger over the edge of one, admiring the curving sharpness of it that would have the simplistic power of destruction when wielded. He wasn't sure which charm should be placed on this particular one, he'd leave that up to the Dwarves' Spellmaster when he arrived.

It had been two days since the Dwarves arrived, and in that time, Harry had released his prisoner, after emptying his mind of all useful information. He had erased from his mind the names of Harry's allies, although Voldemort would guess them and target them anyway, and Harry knew that. He sent the near lifeless body to the gates of Malfoy Manner, completely naked, bearing the cauterized marks of Harry's interrogation session. Masses of red lines lanced out all over his body, signifying an excruciatingly painful infection. He had taken the liberty of carving his initials into Callahan's right bicep, just so there would be no mistaking who was responsible for it.

The wizarding world was a powder keg waiting to erupt, especially in Great Britain. Rumors of Harry's health were sprouting up all over the world, started by one panicked Death Eater, who was now dead at Voldemort's hand. Similar panic was spreading, with multitudes of people gathering at the Ministry of Magic to demand Harry's recapture, and subsequent execution.

Far less people were being logical about it, and deciding that, providing the rumor was true, then a Death Eater defecting away from Voldemort in fear of Harry Potter was a good thing, and meant that Harry wasn't in league with the Dark Lord.

Hermione had been approached by several people as the most likely person to be in touch with Harry, and had put them on her list of potential members of the Order of the Lion. She had sent them on without confirmation nor denial of her immediate connection with Harry, but informed them that they would be contacted later.

Harry was now pacing through the caverns beneath the dungeon, where the wealth of the Order was stored. He had sent Hermione and Remus on a diplomatic mission to the Isle of Man's small magical community, to gather their support, and to hopefully use the island as a fortress and staging point for attacks in England and other places.

While that was going on, Harry had also sent Tonks and Sirius on a reconnaissance mission to Ireland, where Ronald Weasley's auror division was stationed. Tonks was going to use her metamorphagus ability, and Sirius his animagus ability, to infiltrate their base and get an idea on how strong they were.

Snape had the lone job of reporting on the Order of the Phoenix, and Dumbledore's knowledge of Harry.

Harry himself remained at the castle, planning and preparing for war. Dobby the house elf had been brought to the castle by Hermione at the request of Tonks, and was immediately given the task of preparing the kitchens for full service. He had done a sterling job so far, and the kitchens were nearly completely up to date. Dobby was well liked by a squib grocer, who dealt with Hogwarts, procuring and delivering much of the castle's food supply. As such, Dobby was able to get the same deal that Hogwarts had, but in far smaller quantities. Fresh supplies of perishables would be delivered to a drop point on the coast of Ireland, where Dobby would pick them up and transport them back to Lion Castle. Two of the Dwarves were cooks as well, and did not hesitate to show Dobby the finer sides of slow roasting meat, and brewing ale. They also did not hesitate to show everyone the table etiquette of the Dwarves, and needless to say, Hermione was quite appalled.

Harry's strange but pleasing relationship with Tonks had not progressed much, largely in part of Sirius doing his best to torture them every time they were alone. The first incident was a massive condor perched over Tonks' head as she was sleeping next to Harry one morning. She woke up and screamed bloody murder, almost causing Harry to internally combust from the shock. Another incident was a well aimed dung bomb landing on Harry right as he got Tonks into a corner. He chased Sirius down and held him suspended in mid air over the water for that one.

Harry was cut short from his musings as a wailing pig scurried across his path, carrying what Harry assumed, was a gleeful Dwarf on its back. Harry followed them with his eyes, mouth gaping slightly. Two more laughing Dwarves ran in front of him, following after the pig and its rider. He looked across the dining hall, and saw Dobby jumping up and down on a table in excitement, as he watched the Dwarves. Harry shook his head and decided to leave it, for now. He assumed that the pig would eventually turn into dinner.

Dinner was a pleasant affair, with Harry's assumptions proven correct by the excellent pork that was served. Tankards of potent ale were passed around, in traditional Dwarven fashion. Harry had more than his share of the intoxicating drink, and was feeling quite drunk by the time Dobby cleared the table off. The Dwarves were telling tales of their hunting and battle expeditions in the Urals; Apparently, the group that was sent to Lion Castle were considered the elite of their kingdom. The best in blacksmithing, hunting, tracking, and fighting. They were all over two-hundred and fifty years old, and were veterans of the long and bloody Giant and Troll Wars. The war with the Giants was actually just a series of raids and counter-raids that lasted over the course of ten years during the mid 1800's. The Troll War lasted fifteen years in the early 1900's, and began as a supposed quick campaign to rid the Urals of the Mountain Trolls. However, they underestimated the intelligence of the Troll chieftains, who put aside their own conflicts and united as one to launch a counter-offensive against the Dwarves. The war ended with thousands of deaths on each side, and each of the Dwarves at Harry's table being awarded the Kingdom's Hammer, the highest award attainable by a warrior. In short, they were a veteran group capable of holding their own in a fight against just about anyone.

Dervin, the Dwarf seated to Harry's immediately left, was currently telling with great pleasure, the story of his first boar hunt. Harry listened with half a mind. His attention, inebriated thought it was, wandered to other topics. Inspiration can come at strange times, as all know. This was one of those times for Harry. For the past week he had been counting solely on physical, combative warfare to defeat his enemies. It was fueled by a thirst for vengeance, he knew. He desperately wanted to spill the blood of his enemies, and dedicate their deaths to Naylajaratim, but somehow he now understood that he was going about his plans like a fool. 'Perhaps it took a drunken, loosened mind to see it,' He reflected to himself, chuckling out loud.

This drew a curious look from the Dwarves, but they took it at face value. Harry must've found some human reason for humor in the tale.

Harry summoned a bit of parchment from the library, the door was open fortunately, and conjured a quill and some ink to write his plans down, to prevent himself from forgetting them once he regained lucidity.

The Dwarves erupted in laughter, but Harry paid them no attention and kept plotting.

It was with a devious but pleased heart that Harry climbed the stairs to his bedroom that night. He had several meetings to pursue in the morning, and he willed himself to sleep as quickly as possible.

Harry awoke early; Daylight was just beginning to creep over the horizon. He silently made his way down the stairs to the library. Dobby intercepted him before he could shut the door behind him, and began nearly begging for orders.

"Actually, you could get something for me, Dobby." Harry began.

"Anything, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby squealed in delight.

"I need any current photos you can find of Ronald Weasley, as quickly as possible. And be stealth about it." Harry requested.

"Yes sir, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby departed as fast as he could, to who knows where, in order to complete his objective.

Harry, in the meantime, went through Hermione's magical catalogue for all the books in the library, and selected a title. A small, but very morbid looking book slowly floated to Harry. He took it and curiously felt the hardened cover. Opening it, he discovered the pages were made of a leathery material, that had a strange smell. It wasn't musty, as old paper gets. Wondering about this, and reading the chapter titles on the index page, realization struck Harry, and he dropped the book with a somewhat startled, choking noise. The cover was made of bone, and the pages were human skin. After recovering from the initial surprise, Harry picked the book back up and took it to the nearest table, where he sat down and opened it. The pages were filled with bold, violent looking glyphs, and there were many drawings of various rituals and ceremonies. He flipped through the book until he came across the entry he needed, and made a quick copy of the page on a piece of parchment, then waited for Dobby to return with the requested pictures.

He didn't have long to wait, as Dobby returned quite quickly, bearing an armload of magical pictures featuring the one and only Ronald Weasley. Harry took them with a malicious grin, and thanked Dobby, who looked about ready to burst into tears. Harry took the pictures and parchment and went outside to the castle grounds, where he scratched a shape into the ground with a knife, then stood next to it. He studied the pictures carefully stifling an amused feeling as Ron moved around uneasily in them, with an expression that was borderline fear, borderline hatred. Harry marveled at the advances in wizarding photography, as he concluded that a way was found for magically photographed people to have some of their personalities captured as well as their image. After several minutes of watching them carefully, Harry dropped them all to the ground, and took the knife he cut the shape with, and sliced into his left hand. Blood dripped from his hand, into the ground. The outline briefly glowed red, and Harry spat out a guttural series of words. A mound of earth rose quickly from the ground, forming into the shape of a human as it grew taller. Harry concentrated, and it began to take on the appearance of Ron Weasely. After a few seconds, the transformation was complete, and Harry willed the creature out of the shape. He raised one more of them, which he didn't give features, just a dark cloak with a hood that covered it's face.

Harry spent the next several minutes summoning objects and transfiguring them, until he stood in the middle of what looked like a movie set. Brick walls rose on three sides, giving the appearance of being in an alley, as well as a cobblestone street underfoot. Several objects were placed around, making it look more realistic. Windows were added, as well as a faded sign for the Leaky Cauldron. Harry looked at the still rising sun, and decided that the sky and surroundings looked enough like dusk to keep going. Harry placed his creatures in somewhat of a secretive location, and hid himself near them behind a series of discarded boxes. He laid down to act as though he was a sleeping drunkard, and began willing his creatures to act. Using his memory, he added voice to the Ron-creature, while keeping its movements accurate with the words.

"After you're in, head straight to the first target. Take it, and then hit the second. Since he escaped, we know he'll try and retake it." The Ron-creature whispered urgently to the dark cloaked-creature.

The dark cloaked-creature responded with a gravelly voice that Harry thought up on the spot. "Why can't you just get the president to release it all to you?"

"There's no way they'll willingly let go of that much."

Harry closed his eyes from the scene, and willed everything to disappear. He rose to his feet, and strode quickly back into the castle, and to the first dungeon level, where Snape had set up a small room to use as a potions laboratory. Once there, he took an empty vial from a shelf, and pointed his finger at his head. He concentrated and whispered quietly, drawing a thin, silvery strand from his head, and gently depositing it into the vial. He put a stopper in the vial, and rushed back upstairs to the library. Once there, he sat at a table and scribbled a quick note.

Honorable Gringotts President,

I was sleeping off a drunken state in the alley next to the Leaky Cauldron two weeks ago, when I awoke to a sound of voices. I didn't think to put anything together until recently hearing that Harry Potter lives still. This vial contains my memory of this event, before falling back asleep. I hope it helps your ongoing investigation.

Name withheld due to fears of repercussions.

Harry rolled the parchment around the vial, which he attached with a sticking charm, and called Dobby.

Dobby arrived without delay, "How can Dobby help, Harry Potter, sir?"

Take this to the nearest owlery, and send it straight to the Gringotts President. Do not let yourself be identified, and return right away.

Dobby nodded enthusiastically and took the parchment, then disappeared with a small pop.

Harry left the library and went to the kitchens, where he began preparing a large breakfast.

Hermione and Remus returned to the castle at ten o' clock that morning, with Tonks and Sirius arriving shortly after. Dobby had returned twenty minutes after Harry sent him on his mission, and reported success. So it was with expectation that Harry waited for Tonks and Sirius in the meeting hall. He was not disappointed; Tonks reported that Ron had received an owl at around nine o' clock, and stormed from his office looking very agitated.

Harry smiled at this news, confirmed that there was nothing else to take immediate note of, and nodded his thanks to Tonks and Sirius. They would give their full report after a quick breakfast.

Hermione and Remus spoke up next. "The magical community of the Isle of Man voted to accept your request to establish a base there, as long as you paid out a fee and helped to establish wards around their settlements for their own protection."

"What is the fee?" Harry asked.

"They want four thousand galleons a month." Remus replied.

"Done. Let them know as soon as possible, then I want you and Sirius to head out there with a host of Dwarves to begin construction of a base."

"Is their arrival still planned for tomorrow?" Hermione questioned.

Harry nodded, "Yes. King Elius sent word today that the first troupe of thirty will be arriving midday tomorrow, followed by thirty more each day for a week."

Hermione looked thoughtful and worried, "Harry…where are three hundred and forty Dwarves going to sleep? Especially if the Order has to move in."

"They'll fit in the castle until the base on the Isle is habitable. I suspect that it won't take long. Dobby!" Harry called.

Dobby arrived immediately, looking pleased with being wanted. "Yes, Harry Potter, sir?"

"I want you to get me the names and contact information of the four largest muggle construction supply centers in Great Britain." Harry told him.

"Yes sir, Dobby will do as asked!" Dobby ran off and disappeared to where ever it is that he went, to get information.

"Harry, are you paying Dobby for his work?" Hermione asked.

"He gets whatever he wants and needs." Harry responded, looking at Hermione.

"But you're not paying him." She stated.

Harry sighed deeply and left the hall, leaving behind an irate Hermione, and an amused Remus.

Tonks and Sirius were in the middle of eating when Harry entered the dining hall, and he took a seat next to the currently blonde haired woman.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her shoulder. "I hope that no harm came to you while you were out there?" He asked.

"None at all." She replied, leaning into him.

Sirius snickered.

"Hush, Sirius. Just because you can't keep a steady girlfriend doesn't mean you should take it out on us." Tonks said, while winking to take the sting out of what she said.

Sirius laughed, "It's too hard to keep a steady girlfriend when there's so many of them at once."

Harry laughed at this one, while Tonks merely looked appalled. "And I take it they don't all know about each other?" She asked.

"Course not, otherwise they would last a lot longer." Sirius replied with a smirk.

"And that's where you go wrong, my dear cousin. You underestimate the…adventurous side that some women have, particularly if you're gathering yours from where I think you are." Tonks shook her head, almost sadly.

Sirius looked very intrigued by this, and visibly displayed it by sitting up a lot straighter. "What do you mean?"

Tonks smiled secretively. "I just mean that if you're picking up the women from the Controverse Alley club scene, as I'm sure you are since they're about the only ones that would go for you," She winked again, "Then they might be a bit more open to things than you may think."

Sirius stared, seeming to digest this new information.

Harry, meanwhile, snickered loudly, getting revenge for all the recent times that Sirius had been snickering at him. "You could've had a happy relationship with several women at once. But…you blew it!" He laughed heartily.

Sirius, in order to regain some dignity, quipped back at Tonks, "Don't you hit the Controverse Alley club scene as well, my dear Nymphadora?"

Harry perked up at this one, having still fresh information regarding some of the denizens of that area's relationship interests.

Tonks kicked Sirius under the table, and whispered for him to shut up.

"Ahem," Remus cleared his throat upon entering the dining hall, and seeing that Tonks was looking quite angry, Harry quite giddy, and Sirius quite amused.

"Yes, Remus?" Harry asked, looking to his former teacher.

"Severus is about to return to the castle with important information."

"How do you know?" Harry questioned.

Remus gestured to the large entrance doors, "Saw him out the window as he portkeyed in, looks frenzied."

Just then, the doors burst open and Snape hurried through, heading directly for where Harry was sitting. Hermione entered the room and sat next to Harry, to hear what Snape had to say.

"There was an emergency Order of the Phoenix meeting called this morning; There apparently was a tip received by Gringotts today that fingers Ronald Weasley as one of the masterminds of the break-in. They are demanding that he be extradited to their territory to be placed under their legal jurisdiction." Snape spoke rapidly, yet somehow managed to keep his cool and collected demeanor, without losing the touch of scorn that came along with Ron's name.

"Will the Ministry abide?" Harry asked, while Tonks, Remus, Sirius and Hermione displayed various forms of surprise.

A smile slowly dawned on Snape's face, and a low chuckle escaped from his throat. "However you did it, well played. The Ministry is caught between a rock and a hard place, on this. Albus, with the obvious support of the Weasley's, believes it would be prudent to get Ronald into hiding."

"You did this, Harry?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. "Tell me the Ministry's exact situation, to the best of your knowledge, Severus."

Snape took a seat at a table across from everyone else, and looked Harry in the eye. "In the wizarding world, Ron Weasley is regarded as one of its most noble heroes, as you used to be. Giving into the Goblins' demands would incite an uprising that could not be controlled. However, Gringotts has an iron fist over ninety-percent of Britain's wealth, and has other branches throughout the world that, combined, have nine out of every ten galleons, sickles, knuts, and countless other valuables, in their vaults. If they wished it, none of that wealth would ever be seen again. Total economic collapse throughout the wizarding world."

"He's right," Remus added. "It's a lose lose situation for the Ministry."

"Things are going to get dangerous soon," Harry said. "I want the Order of the Lion brought into the castle as soon as the Dwarves are settled. Combat training will begin immediately after, lead by myself, Remus, Sirius, and Tonks. Hermione, I want you to take three or four like minded individuals from the Order to assist you with procuring, categorizing and inventorying supplies for the war effort. In short," He raised a hand to cut off her impending protest, "You and your team will be the lifeblood of this organization, because without supplies, we can't operate. I don't trust anyone else outside of this group enough to give them a position that would potentially bring disaster to us all."

"What of Severus?" Remus asked.

Harry smiled, "Spreading the fires of dissent and mutiny in the Order of the Phoenix."

Snape grinned. "I will start in the lower ranks and use them to work the way up."

Harry nodded. "Exactly what I had in mind. If we can break them up through fear and distrust as a cohesive fighting force and disorganize them, then that will make the fight against them that much easier. With Severus' occlumency skills, he'll be able to hide his involvement in it, and will be above suspicion. The Greeks' called it _phobos_. They experienced it largely as a whole when the great Persian army stood ready to advance into Greece, over two thousand years ago. Rest assured, there will be no Sparta or Athens on the side of our enemies."

Hermione, Sirius, Remus, Snape, and Tonks' faces were blank, and it was obvious they'd never heard of any of what Harry spoke, with the exception of the country Greece.

"Marathon? Thermopylae? Leonidas? The Three Hundred?" Harry asked in near desperation.

They shook their heads.

"Hermione, how can you not know it?"

"I'm sorry, Harry. My muggle history doesn't go back that far. I know them all by passing references, but not the stories."

"Aye, we know the Spartans." A voice from the doorway called.

They all turned to face the voice, and saw Dervin and his troupe of Dwarves entering the kitchens from the lower levels.

"Masters of war, unrivalled in their peak. The Dwarves have a great respect for the ancient armies, and still tell their tales to the young ones. They were such warriors that they would've even given us a fight if we came to battle. There are very few that we bestow that honor upon."

Sirius looked genuinely interested in muggle history now, and opened his mouth to ask a question.

"Hold on, we can discuss history at greater lengths over dinner. For now, I need your best architects and engineers," Harry pointed to Dervin, "And you two," He pointed to Sirius, Remus, "To begin working on a design for a fortified base on the Isle of Man. It must be easily defendable, and able to house several hundred in garrison, as well as civilians from the Isle should it come under attack."

Dervin immediately called forward three of his companions and strode forward himself. "Pirloki, Bwill, Largi, and myself have all lead the construction of numerous outposts for our kingdom. The company arriving tomorrow includes many engineers as well."

"Which of you is the most accomplished?" Harry asked.

"I am." Dervin replied.

"You're in charge of this initial design operation until Remili son of Thranta arrives in six days." Harry spoke of the famed Dwarven stonemaster that was now bordering four-hundred years of age, and had designed and built the fortress towns of Rambali and Pereline which safeguarded the Kingdom's eastern colonies. They were impenetrable even by the mighty Yeti and Ice Giant armies.

Dervin nodded. "Show us where to put it, and it will be done."

"Remus, show them the general area, and decide on the best place for it to be."

Remus nodded and motioned for the group to follow him. They left the dining hall and before the main doors closed Harry saw them portkey away.

For the next chapter, I promise to take less than nine months to write it. :P


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